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From 



New York to Delhi, 



By way of 



Rio de Janeiro, Auftralia and China. 



By 

Robert B. Minturn, Jr. 



SECOND EDITION. 



New Y o r k : 
D. Appleton & Co., 346 & 348 Broadway. 

London: 16 Little Britain. 

1858. 



vw 



POLITICAL DiVtSlONS 




0S]D3^ 



The English Territory ?> (vlonrvd darkret/ . 
The Native States are mtoitm/ IkjM red . 
The Presidency y Madras „nd,h Dependencies 

a/Y' boanded hi/ a bUie Ime. . 
The Presidency^ Bonibay«„rfis. Dependencies 

are bounded by a green line . 
The Presidency^Ben^al w,A. Dependencies 
comjirue U,e. rest of die-. BrUi.f/i Posse.mon.9 . 
Indimtes Hie route o/'lhe . \itllior. 



■^^oF Sanmy.Myor&I6uipp/ri9 Braad:vay. XY. 







Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the yeai" 1858, by 
EOBEET B. MINTUEN, Jk., 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 



TRAWSfEB 

9 

MAY 25 1945 

Serldtl Record Ofvislim 
Th« Library off CongreM ^. 

Copy ^^ « ^ 



PREFACE. 

The following work has grown out of a six months' tour in India, 
just before the outbreak of the recent mutiny. The materials were 
principally derived from letters intended only for the perusal of my 
family. I have been induced to give my observations a more permanent 
form and a wider circulation, both on account of the interest which has 
been excited in the subject by the events of the last year, and because, 
considering the size and population of the Indian peninsula, its im- 
mense capabilities of production, and the important position that it 
may hereafter hold in the economy and commerce of the world, it 
certainly has not hitherto attracted in this country its due share of 
attention. 

The poHcy and administration of the East India Company's govern- 
ment are so generally misunderstood, and so hopelessly unpopular, that it 
seems a thankless task to say a word in its favour. I have stated, how- 
ever, only what I beHeve to be the truth, after the most careful investi- 
gation which I could give. I do not hold, with some, that the East India 
Company was the only perfect government in modern times ; but, on the 
other hand, I beHeve that posterity, if not the present generation, will 
admire and wonder at the sagacity and wisdom of a pohcy which has 
enabled fifty thousand men (for, until the late difficulties, there have 
never been more Englishmen in India) to conquer so vast a country, and 
hold in subjection myriads of men, of most opposite national character, 
generally civilized, often warhke, and defended, in more than one in- 
stance, by the science and skill of the art of war as practised in Europe. 

I am aware that many things which I have stated with regard to the 
character of the natives of India may appear improbable or incredible. 
All I can say is, that no European can ever comprehend an Asiastic, 
and that the more their peculiarities are studied, the more inconsistent 



iv Preface. 

they appear. How can Englishmen or Americans ever rightly appre- 
ciate people who have no *^xpression in any of their languages for 
" India," the country in which they Kve ; no equivalent for " thank- 
you," and no word for "patriotism," and many such ideas. 

The last five chapters in the book contain statistical and other in- 
formation, which would perhaps be most valuable, if perused before 
the description of the country itself. 

Since this work has been written, the East India Company has ceased 
to exist as a government. One of the Queen's ministers is now in name, 
as he has long been in fact, the supreme authority in Indian affairs. The 
very slight modifications introduced into the system of government by 
the new act is the best possible testimony to the excellence of the 
old organization, an excellence which can only be found in a system 
which is based solely upon the conclusions of common sense, and has 
grown up from the results of practical experience. 

The difficulties consequent upon the revolt still continue, but the 
war is now purely defensive on the part of the rebels, and their fate is 
certain unless they can find new allies among the native princes or 
feudal lords. The great heat of the present season, the small number of 
English troops, and the superiority of the natives in rapid marching, all 
tend to delay the restoration of order ; though they do not seem to 
strengthen the rebellion, which appears to possess neither unity nor 
organic vitality enough to spread or become aggressive. Disturbances 
are now confined to a comparatively small extent of country, and do 
not affect the peace and security of the peninsula at large. 

It now only remains that I should acknowledge the very valuable 
assistance that I have derived from many previous writers on this 
subject, especially Colonel Sleeman and M. de Valbezen, whose very 
words I have, in several instances, followed. The facts and figures 
which I give I have endeavoured to make as accurate as possible by a 
careful collation of difierent authorities, and a reference to official docu- 
ments, whenever practicable. 

Nev?- Toek, August 14, 1858. 




CONTENTS. 



Chap. I. — Rio de Janeiro. 

PAGE 

Cause of visiting Kio — Entrance of the Harbour — Eepairing Yessels at Eio — Porters 
— European Appearance of the City — Architecture — Priests and Eeligion — 
Slaves — Villas in the Country— Tejuca — Substantial Houses — Business — Polite- 
ness — Opera — Government — Departure from Rio 13 

Chap. II. — Australia. 

First View of Australia — Sydney Harbour — The Town and its Climate — Passage to 
Melbourne — Public Land System — The Road to Ballaarat — Colonial Milestones — 
Bushrangers 20 

Chap. III. — Australia, continued. 

First View of Ballaarat— Description of the Place— Gold Digging — A Colonial 
Theatre — Socialism at the Antipodes — Geelong — Melbourne— Paramatta — Re- 
publicanism in Australia — Government and Education — Emigration and probable 
Future of Australia 27 

Chap. IV. — North China. 

The Passage from Australia — Making the Chinese Coast — The Yang-tze-kiang — The 
Foreign Settlement — Dress and Life of the Resident Europeans — Chinese Sol- 
diers — Natural Characteristics in Northern and Southern China— Native Town 
of Shanghae — Streets — PaAvnbrokers — Public Buildings — Temples, and Worship 
— Phonographic "Writing — State Visit of the Taootai — A Chinese Cafe — Romish 
Mission — Executions and Torture— Indifference to Pain shown by Orientals — 
Captain Marryatt's Story— The " Battle of Shanghae" 87 

Chap. V. — A Trip Inland. 

Leave Shanghae for a Trip up the Canals — Our Boat — Swimming— Banks of the 
Canal — Military Stations — Temples — Graves — Villages — Dress of Chinese — Town 
of Kwunsan — Grain Junks— Comparison of Chinese and American Governments 
— This part of China once Submerged — Cormorants — Approach to Soo-Chow — 
The City — " Foreign Devils" — Grand Canal — Heat— Hills near Soo-Chow — View 
of Ty-hao— Mandarin's Tomb— Ty-hao— Chinese River Thieves — Their Honesty. 50 

Chap. VI. — A Trip Inland, continued. 

Ascend Toong-toong-ting-shan — The View — The Great Lake of China — A Beautiful 
Canal — Villages — Return to Soo-chow — Grand Canal — A Customs- Barrier — A 
Chinese Fort— Ping-bong— Chinz^— Nan-zing— Effect of Drought on Rice Fields 
— Our Examination by Mandarins— Preparations for the Rebels — Hoo-chow — 
Pretty Girls — Are compelled to return to Shanghae — Bridge at Yang-kow-shin 
— Kahing — Troops— Mandarin's House in Lake — ^Arrive again at Shanghae— 
Charity in China , 61 



vi Contents. 

Chap. VII. — Southern China. 

PAGS 

Leave Shanghae — The Peninsular and Oriental Company — Hong Kong— Foreign 
Settlement of Canton— The Chinese Suburbs— Ceremonies at Ming-qua's House 
—Making Tea— Opium Smoking- The OpiumTrade— Temple of a Hundred Gods 
—Beggars Dying of Starvation— Interior of a House — A Chinsse Eestaurant — 
Chop-sticks— Eat Grills and Dog Stew— Public Opium Shops— The Boat Popu- 
lation of Canton — Indifference to Life — Lepers — How-qua's Garden — Unique 
Method of Hatching Eggs — Monasteries of Honan — Boodhist Services — Sacred 
Hogs— Gambling— Macao— A Protective Policy— The Portuguese— Effect of the 
"War on the Commercial Importance of Canton T2 

Chap. VIII. — To Calcutta. 

The "Lancefield" — Entomology — Singapore — First Yiew of Orientals — The Parsees 
—Malays— Garrhees— Proas— Black Water — Torture— Crew of a Ship in the 
Indian Seas— Jolly Tars— An Indian Watering-place— The Hoogly— Bores— First 
View of Natives— Hubble-bubble— Fattening Shell-fish for Market 85 

Chap. IX. — Calcutta. 

Palkees — ^Buggies— The City of Calcutta— Government House— Tanks— Bazars— 
The largest Mint in the World — Supreme Court — Conflict of Laws — Missions 
and Schools — Spence's Hotel — Servants— Expenses of Living in India — Civil 
Servants — Their Salaries — The Language of the Camp — A People without a 
Country, and a Country without a Name 96 

Chap. X. — Calcutta, continued. 

Eoasting Human Bodies — Adjutants in Calcutta — Unpaid Scavengers — Early Eising 
— The Morning Drive — "The Strand" — Clothing — Country around Calcutta — 
"Stations" — Dum-Dum — ^Artillery Mess — An Ameer of Sind — Barrackpoor — ^The 
Sepoys — ^Too much Petted— Some Causes of the Mutiny 105 

Chap. XI. — Calcutta, concluded. 

Life in Calcutta — ^My Friends there — The India Trade — Skill of the Natives in Com- 
merce — Conduct of American Eesidents during the Eevolt — Travellingin India — 
The Palanquin — "Marching" — Steamboats on the Ganges — Garrhee-dak — The 
Mail-cart 116 

Chap. XII. — To Benares. 

Eailway to Eaneegunj— Indian Eailways — Coal — A Dak-Gdrrhee— Dak Companies — 
The Eights of Horses— Leopards and Jackals — ^Dak-Bungalows — Scenery — Com- 
parison between Natives of India and China — Land-Tenure — Nullahs — People 
on the Eoad — Sahussuram — Two fine Tombs — A Dancing Cow — The Village 
Zemindar — " Taking Leave" — Unsympathetic Character of the Natives — Country 
between Sahussuram and Benares — Seroor 121 

Chap. XIII. — ^The Holy City of India. 

The Sacred Apes— The City from the Eiver— ThQ Observatory— Oriental Science— 
The Golden Temple — Sacred Bulls — The Great Devil — Hindooism — The Goddess 
of the Sknll-Chaplet— Poojah— The Holy Well— SeJf-Torture— Caste— Brahmun- 
Ical Regeneration— Supremacy of the Sacred Caste 186 



Contents. vii 

Chap. XIV. — Benares, concluded. 

PAGE 

Religious Ablutions — Aurungzeeb's Mosque — View from Minar — Burning Ghat — 
Market Place — Hindoo College — " Native Gentlemen" — European Manners and 
Morals in India — Kuins of a Boodhist Monastery— Gold Brocade — Opium 147 

Chap. XV. — Allahabad — "The City of God." 

Arrival at Allahabad — Zubburdustee — Seekhs — Ilindoostanees — Fort at Allahabad — 
An Invisible Eiver — Sooltan Khooshroo's Sural — Hindoostanee Wells — Allahabad 
to Cawnpoor — Bullock Trains — Elephantiasis 154 

Chap. XVI. — Cawnpoor to Lucknow. 

The Station of Cawnpoor — Disorder in Oude — Cawnpoor to Lucknow — Elephants — 
Kaorees — Lucknow — Making Ice — The Weather — The Generosity of the Sove- 
reign Company — My Man Brown — First View of Lucknow — A Moral — The Gate 
of Rome — The Taza — The Imambara — A Fine Coup-d'ceil — Situation of Oude — 
Splendour of the Court — Indian Misgovernment — Indian Gentlemen — Extortion 
and Tortures — Lord Canning's Confiscation — Brutal Degradation of the Court — 
Relations of the East India Company to the King of Oude — Violated Faith 160 

Chap. XVII. — Lucknow, concluded. 

A Morning Surprise — Salam — Native Polish — Hindoo Manners — Parade — Red Coat 
— Character of Sepoys — An Army of Priests and Kings — Caste Misunderstood — 
Pariahs — India Conquered for the English by Natives— Bullock Artillery — 
"Hathee pur Howdah" or Elephant Riding — Rich Dresses — Chokeedars — Fuk- 
heers — A Coat of Paint — Royal Palace — Vanity — The Social Evil — A Modern 
Sodom — Defence of the Lucknow Residency — The Massacre of Cawnpoor 178 

Chap. XVIII.— To Meeruth. 

Appearance of Country — Bishop Heber — Christian Missions — Colonel Tucker — 
Country between Futtehghur and Meeruth — Ganges Canal — An Indian " Sta- 
tion" — Sirdhana — Dyce Sombre's Tomb — Free Lances of India — An Ingenious 
Process for Collecting Money — A Female General — Success of the Begoom — To 
Moozuffarnuggur — Dhoolee Travelling — Persian Inscription — Natural History.. 192 

Chap. XIX. — The Himalayas. 

A Night in a Dhoolee— The Turai Forest— First View of the Snowy Range — Siwalik 
Hills — Ram 1 Ram ! — The Dhoon Valley — Rajpoor— Ascent of the Himalayas— 
Puharrees — Munsooree — Indian Hospitality — Landoor — View of Snow-clad 
Peaks — Hill-stations— An Accident— The Descent — Agriculture in India — Tea 
Plantation — Chinese Workmen— A Snake Fight 202 

Chap. XX. — Return to Meeruth. 

Rev. Mr. Woodside's — American Missionaries — Opening of the Ganges Canal — Ex- 
citement of Natives — Moral Effect — Missionaries' Opinion of the Company's 
Government— Its General Effects- Native States— A Seekh Temple— The Goo- 
roo— Farewell to my Countrymen— Last View of Himalayas — Roorkhee — Work- 
shops—Native Workmen— Repugnance between the English and Native Races 
—The Ganges Canal— Other Buildings— Meeruth Again— Mutiny at Meeruth— 
Conduct of Officers and their Feelings toward the Sepoys 218 



viii Contents. 

Chap. XXI. — The Imperial City of Delhi. 

PAGE 

First View of Delhi— Entrance to the City— The Palace— The Houses Low— The Ar- 
senal—Col. Skinner's— The Church— The Square of Death— The Signal Tower- 
Drive to Kootub— Euins— Old Delhi— An Imperial Whim— Safdur Jung's Tomb 
—The Kootub— Indian Sam Patches— The Observatory— Chandee Chok, the 
Broadway of Delhi— Dandy Moosulmans— The Mosque of Slaughter 224 

Chap. XXII. — Delhi, continued. 

A Juggler- Poses Plastiques— Entrance to Palace— Dewan Am— Emperor's Throne 
—Mosaics— Drawing First Blood— A Paradise on Earth- Peacock Throne— A 
Microcosmic View of the Mogul Empire — Shah Jehan in State— A Hundred 
Tears Later— Native Tact— The Glory has Departed— Maharattas in the Palace 
— Gholam Kadur, the Eohilla, seated on the Eoyal Throne— Eestoration of the 
Empire by the British— Their Majesties, and their "Particular Slaves"— The 
Last Emperor— The Last Tenants of the Dewan Khas— The Pearl Mosque- 
Palace Gardens— The Jumma Musjeed — View from Mindr— Moosulman "Worship 
— Feerooz's "Walking Stick— Hoomaioon's Tomb— Chubootras— Peculiarities of 
Mahommedan Architecture— Capture of the King of Delhi 236 

Chap. XXIII. — Delhi and Umbala. 

The Saint's Tomb— A Eoyal Cemetery— A Victim of the English— The Old Fort— A 
Nach at Mr. Skinner's— The Dinner— The Girls— Their Songs— Dancing Boys- 
Native Gentlemen— Snakes— The Bazars of Delhi— The Streets— A Native "Wed- 
ding—A " Public Night" at the Mess of the 54th— Dak to Umbala— Sick— A 
Dandy Servant — "Vengeance is Sweet" — Sepoy Bands — The Native Army— 
Cashmeer Shawls 251 



Chap. XXIV. — Return to Delhi. 

Desertion- Life of an Indian Officer — Christmas Evening at Mr. Beresford's — The 
Mutiny at Delhi — Murder of my Friends— Fate of the Beresfords — The Eevolted 
Emperor's Government — The City while held by the Mutineers — Uniform De- 
feats of the Mutineers — The Siege and Assault — Taking of the City and Flight of 
the Mutineers — News of the Taking of Delhi — The City after its Occupation by 
the English — "Wholesale Punishment 269 



Chap. XXV.— Agra. 

iirrival at Agra— The Taj— Its Proportions— Mosaics— The " Tribe of the Infidels" 
—"The Ornament of the Palace"— Cost of the Taj— The Fort— The Pearl 
Mosque— The Dewan Am — Dewan Khas — A Seat for a Sovereign — A Court of 
the Zenana — The Palace of Mirrors — The Terrace — ^Sleeping Eooms — Town of 
Alexander — The Printing Establishment — Akbur's Tomb — Akbur's Character 
— His Legislative and Administrative Acts — His Eeligion— An Unexpected 
Meeting — Dine with my American Friends — "Young Bengal" — Illumination 
of the Taj — Eevisit the Palace — An Indian Oubliette — The Old Hindoo Palace — 
Hindoo Art — A Great "Well — A Pleasant Summer Residence — Presentation of 
Colours— Commander-in-Chief's Camp — Manly Sports— The Cathedral — Eam- 
bagh— Tomb of Aktmud-ood-Dowlah— "The Light of the Harem"— Her Ambi- 
tion and its Success 281 



Contents. ix 

Chap. XXVI. — Agra to Jaipoor. 

PAGB 

Chowdris — Combination versus Competition — Our Retinue — Price of Labour — Com- 
mercial Integrity — Leaving Agra — The Departure of " A Warrior Lord" — A 
Loan to the Sovereign Company — The Royal Pilgrimage — " Seekree, the City of 
Victory — Tomb of a Wealthy Saint— Bishop Heber's Guide — Human Chessmen 
— Blind-man's BuflF— A Triumph for Religion — " Pointing ft Moral" Four Rupees' 
worth of Picturesque Piety — Bhurtpoor — English Protection and its Fruits — 
An Indian Sebastopol— Rajah's Palace — Battle of Deeg— Quail Fighting— A 
Boxing Match — Deer — Bosawur — Breakfast at 3 P. M. — Antelopes — Manpoor — 
Walled Tillages— Naked Sanctity — Buranah — Hills of Jaipoor — Palace of the 
Rajah — Jaipoor 300 

Chap. XXVII.— Jaipoor. 

Elephants — Beauty of the City — The Zenana and Palace — Novel Stairways — View 
from Roof — A Court — Revenue Department — Dewan Khas — Sitringees — Native 
Furniture— Curtain-ladies— A Lovely Character — Palace Gardens— His High- 
ness' Toys — " Composite Architecture" — Native College — Marriage Nach — Ob- 
servatory — Palace in Lake — Palaces of Ummeer — Tiffin in the Reception Court 
— Bishop Heber's Praises of the Palace — Bazar of Jaipoor — History of Jaipoor... 320 

Chap. XXVIII. — Rajpootana — "The Country of Princes." 

Bugroo — Peacock Shooting — Thakoor's House — Dhoodoo — Superstition about Wells 
Jain Temple — Kishinghur — Visit from Baboo — Rajah's Palace — Excitement of 
the Public — A Dancing Elephant — Road to Ajmeer — Scenery — Dress and Man- 
ners of Rajpoots — Fort of Ajmeer — Ruins of a Hindoo Palace — Nusseerabad — 
Bombay Sepoys — The Shop of a Fire-worshipper — Bunai — Hindoo Cooking — A 
Native Huntsman — Dablah — Filial Grief— Bunaira — Remarkable Castle — Road 
to Ummeerghur — Cheap Meat — The Day of Rest 331 

Chap. XXIX. — Country of the Maharattas. 

Arrival at Chittor — Seven Miles of Ruins — Tank — The Moon Lady — The Great Tem- 
ple — Hindoo Religious Architecture — The Great Tower — Antiquity of Hindoo 
Ruins — Religious Pic-nic — Enter the Maharatta Territories — " Zubburdustee" — 
" The Good Old Rule" — Poppy-fields — Neemuch — Noble Banyan Tree — Irriga- 
tion — Mundissoor — A Pleasant Resting-place — Jowra — Nawab's English Palace 
— Khachrod — New Style of Architecture — The Soobah's Politeness— Oojen — The 
City — Temple of Kunaia — The God's Carriage — Indian "Punch" — The Maha- 
rattas — A Native Government — Professional Robbing — Spread of the Maharatta 
Power — Nature of their Government — Their Subjugation by the English — 
Gwalior States— The Police— Indirect Utility of Native Misrule 342 

Chap. XXX.— To Ellora. 

March of Sir R. Hamilton — Indor — The Rajah's Palace — Strike into the Mail-road — 
Revolt of Kuhars — Origin of the Present Rajah — Mhow — Goojree — Kurrum- 
poora — A Stray White Man — Mannersof Natives— Si ndwar — Fortress in Ruins — 
Sirpoorah — Peculiar Police Regulation — Old Venetian Coins — Dhoolia — Native 
Town — Evidences of having entered British Territory — Malligaum — Canton- 
ments — Native Town — NandgaoTi — Camp in a Grove — Sakigao?i — Put up in 
a Temple — Enter the Dekkun— Physical Geography— The Nizam— "Might 
makes Right 860 



X Contents. 

Chap. XXXI. — The Cave Temples op Ellora. 

PAoa 
General Description of the Temples—Khallas — Fine Sculptures — "The Work of 
Gods or Devils ?" — Other Caves— A Heavenly Carpenter — A Disorderly House- 
hold — Yiew from Hill — Saint's Tomb— Eoza — Aurungzeeb's Tomb — His Charac- 
ter — Splendour and Power — Decay of the Mogul Empire — A Night in Para- 
dise — Indra Sabha — Sonorous Obelisks — The Doorma Lena'— Architectural 
Ornaments of the Caves — Hindoo Religious Mendicants — Peasantry — Their 
Complexions 370 

Chap. XXXIL— To Bombay. 

■Road to Dowlutabad— " The City of Eiches"— A Stronghold—The " Master of the 
Plain" — Meet "the Moon-Lady" again — Aurungabad — A Magician — Tomb of 
Aurungzeeb's Daughter — Another Eevolt — Separation of our Forces — Toka — 
The Godaveri— Brahmuns — A Hungry God — Eope-and-boat Bi-idge— Imam poor 
— Ahmudnuggur — Meet our Friends — The Fort — The Kingdom of Ahmudnug- 
gur — The Largest Brass Cannon in the World — Duelling among Natives of India 
— Chand Beebee again — Death of Aurungzeeb — Bombay Kuhars — Seroor — Kon- 
dapoora — The Elver Kistna — Poonah — Dismiss our Kuhars — Good-bye to Dhoo- 
lee-travelling — Irregular Cavalry , 380 

Chap. XXXIII. — Bombay. 

Khanddia — The Ghftt Mountains — Cave Temples — The Eailway — Obstacles to its 
Construction — Situation of Bombay — The Fort — Native Town— Eesidences of 
Europeans — Growth of Eastern Cities — Commercial Ability of Natives — Com- 
merce of Bombay and Calcutta — Variety of Nationalities represented in Bom- 
bay — Parsees^Their Costume, Eeligion, and Customs — Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeeb- 
hoy — Other Native Inhabitants — Hindooism in Bombay— Bohoras and Portu- 
guese — Peculiarities of English — Degeneracy of all other Nations in the East — 
The Hoolee — Nach at the House of Juggurnathjee Sunkurset — Anglomania in 
India — Old Hindoo Costume — Cave Temple of Elephanta 390 

Chap. XXXIV. — ^Bombay to Cairo. 

The " Ganges"— Our Fellow-passengers— The Crew — ^Life on the Steamer- — Aden — 
Its Appearance—" Hell with the fires pnt out" — An Original Head-dress— Arabs 
— ^The Cantonments — The Fortifications — Importance of the City — Free Trade— 
A Foot-print of Civilization — The " Gate of Tears" — The Eed Sea— Its Heat — 
Suez — Transit Across the Desert— Its Appearance — The Eoad — The Pyramids — 
The " City of Victory" — A Recommendation for Indian Travel 402 

Chap. XXXV. — -Climate and History of India. 

Size of the Country — Not Thickly Settled — Eainy Season — Cold Season — Hot Season 
— Unfit for a Eesidence of Europeans — Effect on their Health — Origin of the 
Present Inhabitants of India — The Hindoo Conquest— Eemnants of the Abo- 
rigines — The Four Castes — Changes in Them — Arguments in Favour of this 
Hypothesis — Mahommedan Invasions — Tamerlane — Foundation of Mogul Em- 
pire by Babur — Akbur — Shah Jehan — Aurungzeeb — Decay of the Empire — 
Revolts — Maharattas — Rajpoots— Death of Aurungzeeb — The Seekhs— Utter 
Disorganization — Nadur Shah's Invasion — Rise of the English — Conduct of the 
Company toward Conquered Princes — Annexation contrary to the Company's 
Policy — Character of Native Dynasties — Government of Dependent States .... 410 



Contents. xi 

Chap. XXXVI. — English Government in India. 

PAGE 

Abolition of Company's Trading Privileges — Board of Control — Government of India 
Nominiilly in the Hands of the Directors, but really under the Control of the 
Ministry — Civil Servants Appointed by Examination — Objections to this System 
— Unfitness of Natives for Government Employ — Government in India — District 
Magistrates — Salaries — Character of the Civil Service — Native Employees — Un- 
covenanted Service — Universal Lying — Instances from Eeal Life — Rules of Tes- 
timony — Civil Law of India — Mild Criminal Code — Thugs — Dukoitee — Eellgious 
Murderers and Eobbers — Infanticide and other Crimes — Suttee and Human 
Sacrifices — Poisoners — Peculiarities of Crime in India — Thieves — Stealing a Sheet 
from under a Man Sleeping — Precautions — Disregard of Capital Punishment — 
Black Water — Blowing from Guns — Model Prisons — Caste in Jail — Smoking — 
Licentiousness — Discourteous Manners of English to Native Gentlemen — What 
is a Gentleman ? — Dlfiiculties of Magistrates— Native Police — Their Corruption 
and Tyranny — Torture in India — Bribery and Corruption — The Eemedy — Causes 
of the Moral Degradation of the Hindoos 425 

Chap. XXXVII. — The Army of India. 

Its Strength — Dlflfereut Classes of Troops — English and Native Ofiicers — Enlist- 
ment purely Voluntary — Pay — Madras Army — Bombay Army — Low-Caste 
Men — An Army of Gentlemen — Truckling to Caste — Tame Tigers — Salaries of 
Officers — Staff-Service 451 

Chap. XXXVIII. — Revenue and Wealth of India. 

Undeveloped Condition of the Eesources of India — Cotton — Obstacles to Develop- 
ment — Small Agriculturalists — Caste — Want of Capital among Agricultural 
Classes — Inferiority of Native Labour — Want of Eoads — Railways — Ganges Canal 
— Want of European Capital and Energy — Obstacles to the Supply of this — 
Land-tax under Native Governments — Under the English — Lord Cornwallls's 
" Settlement"— The Madras System — The " Village System" — Its Advantages — 
To be made still more Liberal — Eevenue and Expenses of the Indian Govern- 
ment — Low Taxation — India a Poor Country — Misapprehensions that have 
prevailed with regard to the Wealth of Oriental Nations 456 

Chap. XXXIX.— The Revolt. 

Indian Rebellion not a Matter of Surprise — Eevolutions and Rebellions common un- 
der Native Governments — Rebellion did not originate among the People — Cha- 
racter of the old Native Governments — Nature of the English Conquest, and 
Character of their Rule — Evidence that the Rebellion was not a Movement of 
the People — The Rebellion was not in its Origin a Military Mutiny — The real 
Instigators were the Moosulman Princes — It was the dying Effort of Islamlsm — 
Character of the Mahommedan Population of India — Favourable Circumstances 
for the Rebel Leaders — Abortive Attempts of the Eebels to arouse the Mass 
of the Population — The Moosulman Character of the Movement evident in its 
Development— Atrocities — Noble Stand of the English — The Eevolt in Oude — 
Sympathies of the Population of India — The Disaffected Classes — The probable 
Result of the Rebellion if it had not been restrained 470 



ORTHOGEAPHY. 



In writing Indian names and words, I have thought best to adopt a 
uniform system of spelling, choosing the one in common use in India, 
rather than that system which has been adopted by the Asiatic Society, 
and which is, perhaps, neater, but has the disadvantage of giving to 
every vowel a sound different from its common English pronunciation. 
In the system which I have followed : 
a is pronounced hke 

d 

e " " 

e " " 

ij or i " " 

o " " 

6 " " 

u « « 

y, vowel " " 

y, consonant " " 

ai " " 

au, or aw " " 

ee " " 

ot, or oy " " 

00 " " 

ou, or ow " " 

The consonants are generally pronounced as in English. G is always 
hard. The letters in th and ph are pronounced separately, as in out- 
house and upMU. N, in italics, represents the sound of the Trench 
nasal n. The acute accent does not change the sound of the vowel, but 
only indicates the syllable on which the stress of the voice is laid. The 
circumflex accent also does not change the sound of the vowel, and has 
only been used in a few instances to prevent long vowels from beino- 
carelessly pronounced short. 

In the case of certain proper names, I have varied from my system 
in order not to appear pedantic. Thus, I write Hoogly, not Hooglee ; 
Oude, not Owd ; Delhi, not Dihli, or Dillee ; Aurungzeeb, not Owrung- 
zeeb ; Mahommedans, not Mohummudans. The latter spelling of each 
of these words would more truly represent its real pronunciation, but 
would appear uncouth. 



a 


in 


all 


a 


in 


hat 


e 


in 


there 


e 


in 


met 


i 


in 


hit 





in 


so 





in 


rock 


u 


in 


hut 


y 


in 


my 


y 


in 


young 


ai 


in 


aisle 


au 


in 


author 


ee 


in 


see 


oi 


in 


noise 


00 


in 


soon 


ou 


in 


house 



CHAPTER I. 

RIO DE JANEIRO. 

Cause of visiting Kio — Entrance of the Harbour — Eepairing Vessels at Eio — Porters- 
European Appearance of the City — Architecture — Priests and Eeligion — Slaves — 
Villas in the Country — Tejuca — Substantial Houses — Business — Politeness — Opera — 
Government — Departure from Eio. 

We entered the harbour of Rio de Janeiro on the i6th of 
January, 1856, having made Cape Frio the day before. The 
ship on which I was a passenger, was bound for Sydney, and 
thence for China; but a succession of those violent gales, 
which, in that winter, destroyed so much property and so 
many lives on our coast, had completed the work begun by a 
summer's sun in New York, and when about a fortnight out, 
we found the ship leaking badly, a state of things which 
finally compelled us to put into Rio and caulk our upper 
works. 

The entrance to Rio harbour surpassed the highest ex- 
pectations which any of us had formed. The mouth is narrow 
and bordered by lofty walls of granite, rising steep and sheer 
for 1,500 or 2,000 feet, while farther back the Pao d'Assucar, 
or " Sugar Loaf," towers into the air — the first of a series of 
sharply-defined, lofty, barren, and isolated peaks surrounding 
the harbour, and imparting a grandeur to the rich verdure of 
its immediate shores, which they would not otherwise possess. 
From the foot of these peaks, the land slopes gradually down 
to the water's edge, and is covered with beautiful villas, 
mostly in the Italian style, embowered in that luxuriant foliage 
and redundant vegetation which we are accustomed to associ- 
ate with the idea of a tropical climate. 



1^ Rio de Janeiro. 

Passing the picturesque fort which guards the entrance to 
the bay, we sailed up three or four miles, and cast anchor 
among a crowd of vessels, all with their ensigns set. On our 
left, situated on a low flat of not more than two miles' breadth 
to the foot of the hills, lay the city of Rio. The ground on 
which it is built is all made^ or, rather, the city is built upon 
piles, the locality having been formerly a marsh. It is, ot 
course, low and flat, and drainage is an impossibility, which 
accounts for its great unheal thin ess at certain seasons. There 
is usually a- great deal of shipping in the harbour, as there is 
considerable trade, and this is a favourite place of repair for 
vessels which may have become dismasted or otherwise in- 
jured on the voyage to India, Australia, or the western coast 
of America. In this respect Rio has rather a bad reputation, 
as the repairing of damaged ships has become a regular branch 
of trade, and is remarkably well understood — many of the 
ship-carpenters finding themselves in a position to allow a 
handsome percentage to such ship-masters as will give them a 
job. I heard of one or two captains who had put in there 
with disabled vessels, and who were supplied with luxurious 
country seats, where they were kept in a continuous round of 
dissipation while their ships were refitting. Of course, they 
could not afterwards question the charges of those who had 
provided for them a " home and all its comforts" in a foreign 
land, and taken all the tedium of business ofl" their hands. 

Most of the loading and discharging at Rio is done by 
lighters — there being but one wharf The merchandise is 
conveyed from the lighters to the shore by negroes, who wade 
up to their middle in the water, carrying the goods on their 
heads. On shore, these fellows walk in a long procession, 
singing a monotonous song. They seem to prefer carrying 
burdens on their heads — transporting the very heaviest ar- 
ticles in this way. I have seen as many as sixteen men carrying 
a piano forte, locking step as they walked, and all joining in 
the song, which, in this case, was of real importance as en- 
abling them to keep step. It is said that when the railway to 
Petropolis was being built, the negroes insisted on carrying 
the handbarrows, which were furnished to them, on their 



Rio de Janeiro. Ij; 

heads, turning the wheel in front with the hand, in time to 
their song. The negro porters are fine burly men, and are 
always slaves. They are, however, only required to bring 
home to their master a certain sum each day, which amounts 
to about one half or two thirds of w^hat they can earn. On 
landing, I was much struck with the European appearance of 
every thing. The buildings are of that substantial character 
which may be of any age, and which is so different from the 
prevailing taste in North America. A large plaza with a 
fountain borders on the quay, and directly in front of the 
landing, occupying one side of the square, is the Royal Palace, 
a large, but not a striking building, where, however, the Em- 
j)eror rarely resides. In front of the jDalace gate two negro 
soldiers were keeping guard. The army is entirely composed 
of free blacks, by whom, also, the navy is manned. How 
reliable they may be, I did not have an opportunity of learn- 
ing. The streets of Rio are narrow — a very good peculiarity 
in a climate where there is much sun. The houses are usually 
large, and built with walls three or four feet thick. The 
shops are full of French goods — the taste of the Brai^ilians 
being decidedly Gallic. The churches are not fine, though 
very massive. They are all in that Jesuitical style which dis- 
tinguishes modern Romish churches everywhere. The interior 
decoration is generally tawdry. The priests are a low, filthy, 
and dirty set ; very immoral, and far from popular, yet they 
are said to have great control over the Emperor. They 
have not been able, however, to prevent the toleration of 
Protestant opinions, and the free circulation of the Sciiptures. 
A very pretty custom prevails here in celebrating the funerals 
of children. The pall, the liveries of the coachmen and 
grooms, and all the decorations are scarlet, while the hearse 
is covered with flowers placed there by friends, and thrown 
from house windows as the procession passes through the 
streets. In the case of young people, not children, blue dec- 
orations replace the red ; black being reserved for those who 
are grown up or advanced in life. 

The streets of Rio are filled with negroes, free and slaves — 
many of the latter being African born — and known by the 



i6 Rio de Janeiro. 

tribal mark branded on their foreheads. Slavery exists, how- 
ever, in Brazil, or, at least, in Rio, in a mitigated form. Any 
negro may demand a valuation by a magistrate, and, when- 
ever he can make np the sum fixed, may purchase his own 
freedom. On becoming free, a negro assumes shoes, a luxury 
not allowed to slaves. The price of slaves is now high on ac- 
count of the suppression of the slave trade during the last 
four or five years, and it is to be presumed that planters cannot 
now afford to indulge often in the amusement of hoiling a 
negro, a sight which two Quakers, who wrote a little work 
on Brazil, were invited to witness. The negroes live princi- 
pally on a powdered root termed " farinha," black beans, and 
fruit. Wages are very low. Negro porters, of whom there 
are a great many, lie about in baskets, like the lazzaroni in 
the streets of Naples. One of these fellows will carry a parcel 
a mile, and consider himself well paid by two cents. 

The country around Rio is very pretty, and filled with 
villas and suburban residences belonging to the richer inhab- 
itants. The buildings are low (one or two stories), but built 
at great expense, with walls two feet thick. The exteriors 
are stuccoed and decorated with arabesque ornaments on a 
ground of blue or some gaudy colour, the roof being invaria- 
bly of bright-red tile. One of these houses, in a beautifully 
kept garden of tropical plants and trees, has an Eden-like 
effect, which must be seen to be appreciated. I think that 
some of the larger and better kept of these residences, might 
well have written over their gates, the celebrated inscription 
on the Dewan-ee-Khas at Delhi, "If there be a Paradise on 
Earth, it is here, it is here !" 

Tejuca and Petropohs are both summer resorts, within a 
few hours' ride of the city. I visited the former only. The. 
scenery is, I think, as fine as anything in Switzerland, though 
of course, in quite a different style. The immense granite 
masses which border the gorge through which the road 
passes, and the views of the sea through the narrow valleys 
are something magnificent. Near Tejuca I saw much coffee 
growing; it looks like a hardy plant and did not seem to 
have been carefully cultivated. Banana trees are, of course, 



Rio de Janeiro. l^ 

to be seen everywhere, being somewhat of a ^veed among the 
trees ; and I saw, besides, the breadfruit, bamboo, orange, 
lemon, palm and palm. 

While at Rio, I could not help noticing and admiring the 
substantial character of all the buildings. The streets are 
paved with square blocks of stone, and lighted with gas ; the 
walls of the dwellings are of great thickness. Durability and 
comfort seem to have been much more consulted than in the 
United States, where, in weather occasionally just as hot, we 
live in wooden houses, not even filled in with brick. The 
store of M. W. & Co., the consignees of the ship on which I 
was a passenger, was a model of its kind. An immense build- 
ing, with solid walls four feet thick, contained the offices, the 
rooms where the employees lived, a large parlor looking on 
the bay, a saloon where partners and clerks all dined in com- 
mon at two o'clock, and warehouses where their goods were 
stored. I got, from some of the American residents of Rio, a 
very curious, and well-nigh incredible, account of the way in 
which business is done there. A sale for cash implies a credit 
of two or three months, withm which it is a personal offence 
to ask for your money ; and one is expected to renew a note 
as often as requested, provided the interest be punctually paid. 
I say " a note," but the fact is, that even the largest transac- 
tions have, as I was told, in general, only a verbal guarantee. 

The market of Rio is well supplied with fruit all the year 
round (and here I may remark, that no one knows the taste 
of an orange who has not eaten it fresh from the tree) ; the 
fish are very fine ; the mutton is excellent, but the beef poor. 
Oxen and horses do not thrive in Brazil for some reason, 
probably, at least in the case of horses, from not being fed on 
grain. 

The Brazihans are a tame, inoffensive people. A very 
marked feature in their manners, that strikes a stranger 
directly, is their great politeness. On entering or leaving an 
omnibus you uncover and bow to the company, who do the 
same ; and at a table d^hote the same formality is complied 
with by all who leave before the rest, the whole company 
rising and bowing. I was sorry that we could not remain for 



i8 Kio de Janeiro. 

the carnival, which took place a week after we left, and is, 1 
understood, well kept up. The Brazilians are very fond of 
holidays, and are always ringing the church bells and firing 
salutes from the fort in honour of one day or another. The 
ships in the harbour were until lately bound to reply to these 
salutes, but as they used good powder, while the Brazilian 
government bought large quantities of damaged stuff for the 
purpose, they found it rather expensive. The various admirals, 
therefore, took advantage of a period of sickness among the 
men, and gave that as an excuse for not replying, alleging 
that the noise disturbed their sick men. This was three years 
ago, and I beUeve that they have not resumed saluting since. 

I went to the Opera the last evening that I spent in Rio. 
The house is a temporary affair, but the singing and music 
are good ; and I had an opportunity of seeing the Emperor 
and Empress, and the ladies of Rio, who are seldom visible 
in the street. The Emperor was a fine looking man, about 
thirty years old when I saw him — the Empress, a great, heavy, 
Spanish-looking woman, much older than her husband. Of 
the beauty of those specimens of Brazilian ladies which I saw, 
I cannot say much. Their majesties came without any state, 
in a coupe^ drawn by eight mules. Their arrival produced no 
commotion in the audience, but I suppose much enthusiasm 
could hardly have been expected, as the Emperor attends the 
opera every night. His suite were in court-dress, but himself 
and the Empress in the simplest evening costume. It seemed 
to be very common to bring little children to the opera, at 
least among the occupants of the boxes — but as they and all 
the elite left when the Emperor did, at i o o'clock, this is per- 
haps not surprising. His majesty is said to be an intelligent 
man, fond of, and well read in, the sciences, but not possessing 
enough strength of character to resist the Jesuitical influence 
which surrounds him. 

The government of Brazil is very liberal, both houses of 
the Parliament being elected by the people, and the lower 
house having complete control if there be in it a majority of 
three-fourths in favor of a measure ; since, if the Senate do 
not agree, the two houses meet in convention, and a plurality 



Rio de Janeiro. 19 

of votes passes the law. The Senate can always be ontvoted, 
as its number is small compared to that of the House. The 
Emperor's veto suspends a law for one year, when, if it be 
again passed by the Legislature, it takes effect. The govern- 
ment is thus a real republic, with a permanent executive de- 
prived of legislative power. There are, however, some ardent 
young men in the country who desire a republic in name. 
This would be, as an old American resident once said to me, 
the worst thing that could happen to Brazil, as it would 
probably subject her to those periodical pronunciamentos, 
revolutions and upturnings of the whole government, which 
have ruined all the Spanish- American republics. 

On the morning of the 25th we sailed out of Rio harbour, 
our ship having been made thoroughly tight by caulking the 
upper works. We again admired the lofty rock-bound coast, 
the highest peaks of which we did not lose sight of till the 
afternoon of the following day. The weather had been clear 
and sultry the whole time of our visit, and the great heat 
(the thermometer having ranged between 80° and 90°), made 
it pleasant to get to sea again. 



CHAPTER II. 

AUSTRALIA. 

First View of Australia— Sydney Harbour— The Town and its Climate— Passage to Mel- 
bourne — Public Land System — The Eoad to Ballaarat — Colonial Milestones — Bush- 
rangers. 

On the morning of the 8th of April, 1856, I had my first 
view of the coast of AustraHa — a long line of low cliffs, with 
no visible break for the mouth of Sydney harbour, of which, 
nevertheless, we were nearly abreast. The fact is, the open- 
ing is so nan^ow, and the harbour makes so short a turn (if I 
may be allowed the expression), that its mouth is almost in- 
visible, except when one is just entering. It is said that, when 
Captain Cook was in this part of the world, as he sailed down 
this coast, the man who was stationed at the mast head to 
look out for harbours and landmarks, hailed the deck and an- 
nounced that a harbour's mouth was in sight. Before, however, 
the captain could get on deck, the ship had gone so far that 
the narrow entrance was quite invisible. The man was, in 
consequence, reprimanded for giving false alarms, but the cir- 
cumstance was entered on the ship's log-book, together with 
the man's name, Jackson. Soon after, the mouth of Botany 
Bay came in sight, and as there could be no doubt of that 
being a harbour, it was entered, surveyed and named. When 
the government sent the first ship load of convicts to Aus- 
tralia, Botany Bay was the place chosen for their disembarka- 
tion, but as its shores were found unsuitable for a settlement, 
the country round was reconnoitred, and Sydney Bay, twelve 
miles off, chosen for the convict colony. As the new location 
possessed every advantage, both for the settlement and as re- 
garded the harbour, no more convicts were ever sent to Botany 



Auitralia. 21 

Bay ; and as it was recognized that Jackson had been right, 
after all, in his discovery, the bay was called after his name, 
and is now known as Port Jackson or Sydney Harbour. It is 
one of the finest harbours in the world, and there are few that 
excel it in beauty. It wants the lofty mountains which give 
so much grandeur to the harbour of Rio, but the fine slope of 
its banks, which are studded with country seats (the houses 
generally of white stone), and the numerous picturesque coves 
and islands give it a peculiar beauty. As the bay takes a turn 
immediately inside the heads and runs parallel with the coast, 
the harbour's mouth is, from most parts, quite invisible. This 
gives the view a lake-like appearance, that adds much to its 
efiect. The Government House, too, an extensive castellated 
building, standing on a promontory which forms part of a 
finely laid out park, " the Domain," as it is called, is visible 
from all parts of the bay, and has a really fine appearance — 
the royal standard flying from one of the turrets, giving it a 
good deal the air of Windsor Castle, though it is of course 
not so large. The harbour is no less excellent in point of 
utility, the water being so deep that the largest vessels can 
enter, while the shores are so abrupt that ships can lie any- 
where close to the land, and wharves are almost imnecessary, 
and the peculiar turn which I have described the bay as 
making, with the narrowness of the entrance and the height 
of the surrounding land, protects vessels from all effects of 
gales. 

Sydney itself, is built around one of the coves at the further 
end of the harbour, and covers also the promontory which 
divides it from the next cove. It contains now about 85,000 
inhabitants, and is an English town in every respect. In some 
parts you would suppose you were in London, were it not that 
all the houses are of a bright yellow freestone. This is the 
cheapest building material, as the woods of the country are 
too hard for such purj)Oses ; they do, however, excellently 
well for rafters, &c., and are almost fireproof. A great deal 
of Oregon pine is exported to Australia, for building, but goes 
mostly to Melbourne, the outskirts of which city resemble 
New York beyond the fire limits. The inhabitants of Sydney 



22 Auftralia. 

are mostly English, and preserve the old country manners re- 
markably. Drunkenness is very prevalent, and I more than 
once saw women drunk on the sidewalk at nine in the morn- 
ing. In fact, I never saw so much drinking anywhere as in 
Austraha. It is, however, a curious fact, that the " natives," 
as they call the descendants of Europeans, born in Australia, 
do noti as a general rule, drink at all. These " natives " are 
very different in aj)pearance from Englishmen, tall and thin, 
arriving at puberty earlier than in England, and frequently 
with an indescribably mild eye and voice. They are said to 
be much inferior to their parents in energy. When I was in 
Australia, there had lately been a controversy among the phy- 
sicians, as to whether the climate is favourable to the European 
race or not. It was admitted that disease of the heart was 
more prevalent than elsewhere ; and that the teeth go to ruin 
as rapidly as in America, but in other respects the climate 
seemed to hold its own against its impugners. Another 
hundred years vsdll settle the question much more firmly. The 
weather is oppressively hot, at times. When the " Brick- 
fielders," the north-westerly winds from the interior deserts, 
blow, the thermometer occasionally rises to 1 20° in the shade, 
for a short time, and clouds of dust make it impossible to go 
out of doors. But the great heat does not last long, and the 
weather is generally delightful. Frost and snow are some- 
times seen in the interior, but never on the coast, and the trees 
are green all the year round, the old leaves falling only in the 
spring, when they are forced off by the new. 

Sydney has the advantage of a finely kept park, " The Do- 
main," consisting of about 30 acres, running along the shores 
of the bay, and enclosing a Botanical Garden, in which are 
the plants of all climates, growing side by side, in the open 
air. The oak, however, and other northern trees, do not seem 
to thrive — all the specimens that I saw being puny and stunted. 

There are but few fine buildings in Sydney — the cathedral 
being incomplete. There are, however, several very fair stone 
churches, and the houses, though none of them are showy, 
have a well built, comfortable look. The police is excellent, 
on the plan of that in London — the mounted police, particu- 



Aultralia. 23 

larly, who patrol the town at night, are as well mounted, and 
fine looking men, as ever I saw. 



MELBOURNE 

After remaining three days in Sydney, I left for Melbourne. 
There is, as yet, no road between the two places — the only 
connection being by water. The steamers are fine, iron-built, 
sea boats, with every comfort, and very gentlemanly captains. 
And here I must bear my testimony, that as far as my expe- 
rience is concerned, the class of men who command English 
steamers, is at least equal to any similar body in our service, 
while there are some of them who, I think, surpass any that 
we have, in knowledge of the world, and refinement. With 
respect to scientific acquirements, the examinations which 
English masters and mates have to pass before they are en- 
trusted with the care of a vessel, at least ensure a greater 
amount of scientific accuracy than can be found in the Ameri- 
can service. 

I made the acquaintance, on board the steamer of several 
" squatters," as the sheep and cattle farmers are called in the 
colonies, and got a good deal of information from them about 
the " squatter-system " of disj^osing of public lands, which is 
so deservedly unpopular among the miners. It seems that if 
a man wants a " run," as a sheep farm is called, he may get 
one in three ways: 1st. By buying one already occupied, in 
which case he buys the stock also : 2nd, by attending a gov- 
ernment land auction, where the land is sold to the highest 
bidder above £1 the acre; 3d, if he fancies a particular unoc- 
cupied run, he gives in his name and a description of the run 
at the land-office, with proofs that he is able and ready to 
stock the land directly. After a certain time, if no other ap- 
plicant presents himself, he receives the land at the upset-price 
of £1 the acre, but if another applies for the same run, the 
highest bidder has the preference. This system, of course, 
throws all the land into the hands of a few large proprietors, 
and renders it impossible for a poor man to get a few acres to 
cultivate, at a reasonable price — since, in the vicinity of the 



24 Auftralia. 

coast, all the lands are already taken up as sheep farms, by 
men who do not wish to have settlers in their midst. And 
further back, even if the Government could sell lands for other 
purposes than sheep-raising, the distance from the coast, and 
the absence of roads, would prevent all profitaible cultivation. 
The squatter system is, then, as before remarked, very unpop- 
ular among the miners ; and in Victoria, (the colony of which 
Melbourne is capital,) the squatters are looked on as a sort of 
landed aristocracy, whose interests are directly opposed to the 
best interests of the colony. What farming is done, is all on 
the coast, whence produce can be readily conveyed by coasters 
to Sydney and Melbourne. Fruit, of all kinds, which can be 
grown all the year round at Moreton Bay, a place about three 
hundred miles up the coast from Sydney, is, in Sydney, dearer 
than I ever saw it elsewhere — pine-apples as expensive as they 
used to be in London, peaches three to four shillings per 
dozen, and common cooking apples at the same price. 

It is about fifty hours, run (four hundred miles) from Syd- 
ney to Melbourne. I arrived in the evening, and after a night 
in a dirty hotel, where I was nearly eaten up by fleas and 
mosquitoes, started next morning at six for Ballaarat diggings. 
We got off at a full gallop — a pace that was kept up, with a 
few exceptions, the whole way, doing the ninety miles in about 
eleven hours. 

The coaches being under the control of an American, or 
rather having been started by one, are in the shape of Ameri- 
can country " extras," long wagons, uncovered, with half-a- 
dozen seats facing the same way. The horses seemed to be 
all fine, fresh, well-groomed animals^ — as they must have been 
to sustain the pace for the stages of ten miles. My fellow- 
travellers were all miners, and had manners of quite colonial 
familiarity. By the way, colonial is a term used to explain 
anything extraordinary you may observe : e. g.^ I noticed a 
great many bullocks' skeletons on the road, and enquired how 
they came there ; " Colonial Milestones, Mate !" was the re- 
ply — Mate being an endearing colonial appellation, constantly 
given, and indicating a pleasing feeUng of equality, and ten- 
dency to republican familiarity. 



Auftralia. • 25 

The baclness of the roads, generally (though in some parts 
they were as wide and well made as any in Europe,) conipelled 
a change of horses every ten miles, whea everybody went to 
take a drink. On these occasions it commonly happened that 
some one man invited the whole company to " drink at his 
expense," — no small matter, as each drink cost a shilling 
sterling, and no one ever declined. After drinking, they 
would all fill and light their short black cutties^ and smoke quite 
contentedly till the next change, or watering of horses, when 
the same scene was repeated. They were generally good-na- 
tured fellows, and not at all surly, though veiy rough ; and I 
gleaned from their conversation much information with respect 
to the diggings, and. the state of society there. 

Every little while we would pass a couple of "mounted 
police," patrolling. Like the members of the corresponding 
body at Sydney, they were generally large, fine looking men, 
on noble horses. Their uniform was blue, and they were 
armed with a carbme and dragoon sword. Being very well 
paid, I understood that there were among them many men of 
good family and education. This corps have done good ser- 
vice, as there were formerly many robberies by the bush- 
rangers (colonial highwaymen) — whereas, when I was there, 
the road, though mostly through an unpeopled country, was 
as safe, as in many thickly settled localities. The existence 
of this force has also spared Australia the horrors of Lynch- 
law ; and it prevents a great deal of bloodshed, by allowing 
no weapons to be carried. I understood that robbery is im- 
known at the diggmgs, though many diggers keep large 
quantities of gold in their tents. Perhaps this is owing to 
their being constantly on the alert, and well provided with 
watch-dogs, of which every man has two or three. 

The country between Melbourne and Ballaarat is generally 
undulating, though there is one level prairie which the road 
crosses for about ten miles. Most of the land is entirely un- 
cultivated; much of it is not wooded, and much, again, aj^pears 
as if the wood had been thinned out and the underbrush 
cleared. There is but little pecuharity in the general appear- 
ance of the vegetation, although the trees are all different 

2 



26 Auftralia. 

from those existing in other parts of the world. The " gum- 
tree," " cherry-tree," and others the names of which I cannot 
remember, differed very much, even in appearance, from any- 
thmg I had before seen. A very singular thing is, that the 
Melbourne " cherry-tree" does not bear any fruit, and does 
not in the least resemble the European tree of the same name; 
while what they call the " Australian cherry" in Sydney, is a 
small fi'uit with the stone outside, which does not grow on a 
cherry-tree, and only resembles its European synonym in 
being red-coloured. The road to Ballaarat, was, as before 
remarked, in some places very broad, level and finely macad- 
amized ; in others, however, we went right through the bush, 
taking the ground as we found it, and whenever it could be 
managed, at full gallop. The country was dried up by the 
hot weather, but I was told that as we were in the month of 
April, winter weather might soon be expected, when the rains 
would in a few weeks, make it look green again. 

We passed a great many drays carrying goods and luggage 
to Ballaarat. They were drawn by from eight to sixteen 
oxen ; the driver having a long-lashed whip, which trailed on 
the ground as he walked by his team, and with which he could 
touch up any one of them without altering his position. 

The expense of conveying goods to Ballaarat makes the 
necessaries of life very dear, as nothing is produced in the 
vicinity, and everything has to be brought from the coast on 
these bullock-drays. 

Numerous horsemen passed us on the road, most of them 
going at full gallop, the horses of Australia not being broken 
to trot. The occupation of most settlers requiring them to 
pass the greater portion of their time in the saddle, an eques- 
trian costume is the prevailing fashion outside the towns; and 
knee-breeches with top-boots or ISTapoleons are worn by 
almost every body. A stock-whip completes the equipment. 
This is shaped Hke a dog- whip, with a lash six feet long, and 
an inch and a half thick in the middle — no insig-nificant 
weai^on, as a well given cut will go right through the hide 
of a bullock, and make the blood spurt again. 



CHAPTER III. 

AUSTRALIA 

First View of Ballaarat— Description of the Place— Gold Digging— A Colonial Theatre- 
Socialism at the Antipodes— GeeloDg— Melbourne— Paramatta— Itepublicanism in 
Australia— Government and Education— Emigration and probable Future of 
Australia. 

We did not see any diggings, tiU, about four in the aTter- 
noon, Ballaarat burst on the view. I say " burst on the view," 
for you mount the hill which surrounds the place without 
seeing any outlying tents or huts, and, all at once, on attain- 
ing the summit, come in full view of a valley three or four 
miles long, by two or three broad, filled throughout its whole 
extent by white cotton tents — a sea of canvass ! Tlie whole 
view so much exceeded, and differed from my expectations, 
that I could not help feeling that there was in it a certain 
sublimity — though I suppose few will understand the applica- 
tion of the term to such a scene. 

Tents are almost the only sort of habitation in the place, as 
there is no soft timber of which, as of our pine, the settler can 
in a few days build himself a temporary abode. 

It is impossible, I believe, for one who has not seen a simi- 
lar place, to realize the appearance of Ballaarat. The whole 
valley has been, or is being dug, so that there is not a green 
bush or blade of grass to be seen from one end of it to the 
other. The tents are regularly laid out in streets, and just 
wide enough apart to allow of a shaft being sunk between 
them. 

I went to the United States Hotel — one of the few v/ooden 
houses in the places — and liaving left my carpet-bag, walked 
out to see the gold-washing. I was not, however, fortunate 
ill witnessing the discovery of any largo nuggets. The holes 



28 Auftralia. 

are, some of them, from 150 to 200 feet deep. They are 
always worked by several men who own shares, other parties 
also, generally shopkeepers in the place, frequently having an 
interest. Persons who wish to dig must mark out a claim, in 
the possession of which they will be protected by the police. 
To secure this protection, however, a gold-digger's license 
must be obtained, which costs about £1, and does not require 
renewal. The quantity of land that can be thus secured is 
limited by the number of the party. If gold is discovered on 
a squatter's land, he cannot refuse the digger the right of 
mining, but many demand a certain monthly rent. 

The mode of digging gold at Ballaarat is as follows : the 
shaft is sunk until the workers arrive at a certain pebbly 
marl which contains the gold. The shaft is generally four 
feet square, and supported all the way down by a lining of 
logs, squared and dovetailed into each other. On attaining 
this depth, or before arriving at it, the shaft is frequently 
flooded, and months are often spent in freeing it of water, 
before the digging can- be prosecuted. The shaft once dug, 
and not having more than a foot or two of water in it, the 
auriferous marl is hoisted out by a hand-windlass, or by horse- 
power, and puddled. Puddling is the first, rough washing, in 
a large trough, and requires two men with shovels. In the 
larger establishments, horse-power is applied to this also. 
The next j^i'ocess, cradling^ is done by a single man. The 
sand, &c., taken from the puddling trough, and now much 
reduced in volume is transferred to a " cradle" — a sort of 
three-storied tub on rockers. This instrument is kept in 
motion by the left hand, and water poured on by the right. 
The sand is thus washed away and the gold, on account of its 
weight, remains in the cradle. The two lower stages of the 
cradle, are for the finer grains of gold which are carried off 
the first stage by the rush of the water, but bring up on the 
second or third. The refuse of the puddling and cradling 
processes is bought and worked over by the Chinese, of 
whom there are several thousands in Ballaarat. They do not 
however, confine themselves to working over refuse, but have 
holes of their own — some of them very deep. The Chinese 



Auftralia. 29 

in Australia are a low and abominably degraded set, and as 
in California, very unpopular. An effort has been made, 
since I left Australia, to prevent any increase of their num- 
bers, by a prohibitory tax on Chinese immigration. The law, 
however, has been evaded by landing them up the coast and 
letting them make their way to the gold diggings overland. 
They do not bring their women with them, and as soon as 
they make a little money, return to China to enjoy it. 

The description given above of gold-mining is only applica- 
ble to what are called " dry diggings." There are also in 
Australia, as in California, numerous Avet diggings, where the 
bed of the stream is worked for the gold brought down by 
its waters. The dry diggings are said to pay the best, but 
are also the most uncertain. No rule can be followed in se- 
lecting a claim, no rough test a2:)plied to ascertain its probable 
richness. The shaft has to be sunk as fir as the auriferous 
stratum, and strengthened at great expense and labour, and 
weeks and months must pass in draining the water before the 
digger can form even an approximate^estimate of the richness 
of his hole. I saw one man who belonged to a party which 
had been digging in various places for two years, without get- 
ting £100 worth of gold ; but they were still persevering, and 
felt sure of ultimate success. There may be two holes, side' 
by side, out of one of which thousands of pounds worth of 
gold may be dug, and out of the other, not one ounce. Not- 
withstanding this well-known fact, no sooner is there a great 
nugget, or much gold found in any one place, than every one 
abandons his old claim, if an inferior one, and is off to the 
new El Dorado. The population of these mining settlements 
is, consequently very fluctuating ; and, a place which contains 
several thousand inhabitants one week, may not have the same 
number of hundreds the next. Ballaarat, when I was there, 
was supposed to contain 60,000 inhabitants. I know not what 
is the present population. 

The diggers generally sell the gold to the shop-keepers at 
low rates, who send it down to Melbourne once a week, by 
the government gold escort of cavalry. The shopkeepers and 
publicans made more money, I was told, than any other class 



30 Auftralla. 

in the place. The bar-room of the hotel I stoj)ped at was full 
all day long, and till two at night, with men and women 
drinking; and when I got down stairs next morning about 
seven, the room was again crowded with drinkers, and one 
woman was lying drunk on the floor. All drinks cost one 
shilling, except sherry cobblers, which were two and sixpence 
on account of the ice used in making them, which came origi- 
nally from America, and had to be brought up country on ox 
drays, . 

There are quite a number of old California gold diggers, at 
Ballaarat. One or two of them told me that they liked their 
old quarters much better, on account of the greater quantity 
of game and other amusement there. In Australia there is no 
game but kangaroos, and even of them there are but few near 
the settlements. The gold-yield of Australia is, however, 
allowed to be greater than that of California, in proportion to 
the number of diggers. 

In the evening I went to one of the two theatres in Bal- 
laarat. Theatres seem an amusement of which the Australians 
are very fond ; as they have several in Sydney, a very fine 
large one at Melbourne, and at least one in every other place 
I heard of. The performance at Ballaarat was sufficiently bad 
to be amusing, none being more fully awake to the absurd 
incapacity of the company and properties, than the audience 
in the pit. These gentlemen and ladies kept up a rattling fire 
of jokes at the players, and even proceeded to the more prac- 
tical facetiousness of projecting certain missiles, to the discom- 
fiture of the heroes of the buskin. This conduct several times 
neces,sitated the interference of the police, the advent of whom 
was a signal for the suspension of the piece, and for a scene 
of the most terrific uproar, during which the ofiender made 
his escape. 

After the play, I returned to the hotel, where there was a 
public dinner to a Gold Commissioner, or some other oflicial, 
which did not end till three o'clock, and where every body 
got so jolly that it was impossible to go to sleep on the floor 
above. 

Before retiring I engaged, and paid for, my place by coach 



Auibalia. 31 

for the following morning, and settled my hotel bill which is 
always paid in advance " in the Colonies." I paid for two 
beds, and was booked as " Mr, Minturn and friend," in order 
to have a room to myself. At about three the next morning, 
just as I was falling into a doze, I was wakened by a man 
undressing himself in my room, and making ready to occupy 
the spare bed, I told him that I had. engaged both and paid 
for them; but he said that he wanted a bed, and that if I 
supposed I was in England, where a man could appropriate 
what was wanted by the pubhc, I would jfind myself much 
mistaken, I finally found it necessary to get up, when he 
left the room. The next morning I found that my little ad- 
venture had cost me £4, as the fellow who paid me the visit 
in the night, was the porter charged to wake me in time for the 
early coach, who had taken an easy revenge by not calling me. 

I left Ballaarat by a different route at eight o'clock, and 
glad enough I was to get out of it. The inhabitants are the 
roughest set I have ever seen. The men generally wear the 
hair and beard long, a red shirt, cord breeches, and long 
boots. The honest women are commonly very neatly dressed ; 
the others, of whom there was a large number, rigged out in 
gorgeous satins, with silk bonnets, and all the latest Parisian 
inodes. The two barkeepers at the "United States," had 
their hands full all day long, and in the evening could hardly 
manage to wait on the people — the crowd was so great. 
These bar-keepers were both Americans, and got £10 a week 
a piece, wages, besides perquisites, which, as they kept the 
landlord always drunk, must have been considc/rable. 

I left Ballaarat on the morning of the 15 th, and arrived at 
Geelong, a town on the coast west of Melbourne, at three that 
afternoon. On arriving, I found that the boat for Melbourne 
had left half an hour before, and that I should have to remain 
until the next day at the same hour, which brought me to 
Melbourne an hour too late for the boat of the i6th, to 
Sydney — a most annoying specimen of Colonial arrangements. 
Geelong is a fine, stone-built town, of about 15,000 inhabi- 
tants. It had formerly a great deal of business with the 
miners, but they now get most things direct from Melbourne, 



32 ' Auftralia. 

The hotel at Geelong is the best in the Colonies. The races 
had just begun, and the place was crowded with jockeys, 
betting-men, et id genus omne. The coflee-rooni was 
crammed all the evening long, by men in top-boots, cut-a- 
ways, white cravats, etc., making up their books, singing out 
the odds in a loud voice, and talking horse. 

I arrived the next day in Melbourne. In the evening I 
went to the theatre, an iron building. The performance was 
good, and the house crowded, as the theatres seem always to 
be, in Australia. 

Melbourne is now almost twice as large as Sydney, the 
former having about 150,000 inhabitants; the latter, about 
8 5,000. The city is laid out with broad streets, which are 
generally built up with fine g'rey freestone houses. The shops 
are much handsomer than in Sydney, immense plate-glass 
windows, and other decorations being as much the fashion, as 
on Broadway. 

I called on the Bishop of Melbourne, to whom I had a 
letter, but found him engaged. He has a fine palace, but his 
cathedral is a poor affair. In Sydney, the Bishop, though 
Metropohtan of Australia, lives in a small cottage, while his 
cathedral will be, when finished, a very fine building. To be 
sure, it has been in the course of erection for many years, and 
is only finished as far as the clere-story ; but then, they wait 
for aid from Government, instead of taking up private sub- 
scriptions, which would, no doubt, soon complete it. 

Melbourne is marked by much more business activity than 
Sydney, and is, no doubt, destined to be the principal port in 
Australia. Sydney, however, has great advantages in her 
harbour ; that of Melbourne being exposed, and distant two 
miles from the city, so that all goods must be lightered nine 
miles up a winding river, or conveyed to town by railway. 
The expense of the latter mode of conveyance may be esti- 
mated from the fact, that the railroad, although only two 
miles long, and over a level country, with no bridges or other 
works to build, is said to have cost £280,000. The principal 
expense was in the labour, which was hard to obtain at the 
current rate of £ i a day, when the road was constructed. 



Auftralia. 



SYDNEY AGAIN. 



33 



On my return to Sydney, I visited Paramatta, the old 
capital of 'New South Wales. It is a small, very English 
looking country town, with a large Government House in a 
park, and several handsome rural churches. The latter are of 
the universal freestone, but the Government House, and most 
others in the place, are built of brick, which gives them a 
very un-colonial air. The likeness to an English town is in- 
creased by the quantity of English trees, which were planted 
at the first founding of the place, but are, as elsewhere in this 
climate, feeble, puny things. A cactus, however, or some 
other tropical plant, growing by the wayside, undeceives you, 
and modifies the /i07ne-n.ii' of the place, which constitutes, I 
believe, the real attraction to the Sydney people, who arc 
always making excursions to Paramatta. We returned from 
Paramatta by railway, having gone thither in a steamboat. 
The railway is entirely on the English plan, solidly and 
expensively constructed, with a double track, stone bridges, 
servants in livery, three classes of carriages, &g. We did 
the distance back, 14 miles, in 42 minutes, stopjijig every 
mile or two. 

I also visited Botany Bay, which is about six miles' ride 
from Sydney, across a low and sandy country, covered mth 
scrub bushes, &c. The harbour is a large and fine one, but 
not so good as Port Jackson, while the country about the 
latter is infinitely superior. There is now at Botany, a hotel 
to which parties resort on Sundays, and for a drive, from 
Sydney. A menagerie forms one of the attractions of the 
place, and contains, beside the standard lio)is, several kanga- 
roos, and some emus, an Australian variety of the ostrich. 

I was quite curious to find out whether there were any re- 
publican sentiments in the colonies. So far as I could discover, 
however, there were no such feelings, even at the mines. The 
sentiments on this subject were emphatically English. They 
knew when they were well off, and preferred to avail them- 
selves of the protection of the mother country ; and while 



o* 



34 Auftralia. 

they blustered about the aristocratic feature in the new con- 
stitution which confided to the governor the choice of two- 
thirds of the upper house, no complaints were heard of the 
gubernatorial office being non-elective, nor of the high salaries 
which the colony has to pay to crown appointees. The elec- 
tions for the lower houses were going on while I was in the 
country, but excited very little interest. A very curious 
proof of the aristocratic tendency of Australian opinion is 
found in the fact that before my arrival and during my stay, 
the subject of an Australian peerage was extensively and 
favourably discussed by the newspapers of Sydney. 

The colonies of New South Wales, Yictoria, Adelaide, and 
Swan River, are all entirely independent, each having a gov- 
ernor appointed by the crown, and a legislature chosen by its 
own inhabitants. A curious proof of their independence was 
furnished by the fact that sovereigns coined at Sydney, by a 
royal mint situated at that place, did not pass as currency in 
Melbourne when I was there, never having been adopted as 
a legal tender by the colony of Yictoria, though they were 
intrinsically rather more valuable than the English sovereign. 

I went into the courts at Sydney. The judges wore the 
gown and bag-wig, as also the barristers — a costume which 
must be rather uncomfortable in this climate. The jury con- 
sisted of four only — -a necessary provision in a country where 
few have leisure. Either party, however, may demand a full 
jury, but this is rarely done. 

Education and religion are both, in Australia, provided for 
by government. The schools are of two classes, " denomina- 
tional" and " national," both of which are aided by govern- 
ment. They are not, however, free, but at the denominational 
schools a child is rarely refused, even if it cannot pay. The 
teachers of the denominational schools are appointed by boards 
chosen by the difierent sects. There is a regular university 
at Sydney, which will be a fine institution. A building is 
now being erected for it, out of town, in a style worthy of a 
place among the colleges of Oxford. 

Salaries are paid by government to the Episcopalian, Ro- 
man Catholic and Presbyterian clergy; but of these the 



Auftralia. 35 

Church of England is much the b^st provided for. There is, 
however, no distinction in the legal standing of the various 
relio:ious societies. The Roman Catholic cathedral will be a 
fine structure, but the nave is not yet completed. The chancel 
and transepts are however shut in by a wooden partition, and 
thus made available for the performance of service. The cathe- 
dral is surrounded by a collection of schools, nunneries, &c. 

Sydney has two club-houses, both fine buildings. There 
are several theatres, but none so fine as one of those at Mel- 
bourne, which is as large as, and handsomer than, the Metro- 
politan Theatre on Broadway. 

The two Sydney newspapers are well written, well printed, 
and remarkably good specimens of antipodean journalism. 
They are the only rival papers I ever heard of that did not 
abuse one another. 

Emigration to Australia had, when I was there, been for 
sometime very slack, and the want of labour was much felt. 
Salaries of all kinds were enormously high, and servants hard 
to get at any wages. While I was in Sydney I sent an um- 
brella to a tailor's to have a small hole repaired. The tailor 
sent it back unrepaired, with the message that while he was 
making half a crown mending my umbrella he might be mak- 
ing a guinea at something more profitable. 

On account of the great expense of the passage to Austra- 
lia, immigrants have usually been assisted by the colonial 
governments, either gratuitously or else a note was taken for 
the whole amount of the passage money or a part. The for- 
mer of these systems has been so badly managed as to bring 
out to the colonies the refuse male and female population of 
the large cities — the most undesirable class possible. The fol- 
lowing fact, which I had from the American consul, gives a 
good idea of how this thing was managed. It seems that 
some one left money, or some money was collected, to bring 
to New South Wales a number of " destitute Irish orphans." 
When the " orphans" arrived, the colonists, who had engaged 
them all as servants, were equally surprised and disgusted at 
finding them women of thirty or forty years, almost all en- 
ceintes^ and the rakings and scrapings of the worst and most 
deorraded class. 



36 Auitralia. 

. The necessity of emigr^ion is made more urgent by the 
character of the black race, on whose labom-s the settlers can- 
not rely. They will work perhaps steadily for some time, and 
then leave, without notice, to attend a palaver, or fight with a 
hostile tribe. If they have no excuse of this kind, they will 
allege, on their return, that they have been " taking a walk," 
which means wandering over the country for five or six months. 
They are a cheerful, harmless race, but all attempts to civi- 
hze them, or permanently improve their condition, have failed. 
Such has also been the fate of all missionary efiTorts among 
them. They are, in fact, rapidly dying away, and disappear- 
ing before the white race. The few that I saw were wretched 
looking objects, begging in the streets of Sydney, but they, I 
suppose, hke the Indians one sees at Saratoga, were not fair 
specimens. The blacks, however, are not the only beggars in 
Sydney. I saw some sturdy Irish mendicants, who begged 
rather than take eight or ten shillings a day, which they con- 
sidered too low for their services. 

Australia, though in time it may become a place of great 
importance, can never become a rival to America. It is too 
far from the mercantile portions of the world for its produc- 
tions to have a ready market, when in competition with what 
can be produced equally well here. Secondly, access to the 
interior is difficult, and must continue so, as there are no great 
navigable rivers, and the mountain chains run in such a way 
as to be a great obstacle to the construction of railways. 
Thirdly, it is not by any means certain what may be the efiect 
on the Enghsh race of a residence in so warm a climate for 
several generations, but if we may judge of the ultimate re- 
sult from what we can now see, it will tend to its deteriora- 
tion. Fourthly, so long as the present system of land apportion- 
ment continues, no considerable and permanent immigration 
can ever take place. K^early all the present inhabitants oi 
Australia are only there temporarily, and intend to return 
home sooner or later ; and this will continue to be the case, 
until inunigrants have facihties afforded them for purchasing 
land to cultivate, and securing a homestead, however small, 
which shall be their own. 



CHAPTEE IV. 

NORTH CHINA. 

The Passage from Australia — Making the Chinese Coast — The Yang-tze-kiang — The For- 
eign Settlement — Dress and Life of the Eewdent Europeans — Chinese Soldiers- 
Natural Characteristics in Northern and Southern China — Native Town of Shanghae 
— Streets — Pawnbrokers — Public Buildings— Temples, and Worship — Phonographic 
Writing — State Visit of the Taootai — A Chinese Cafe — Eomish Mission — Executions 
and Torture — Indifference to Pain shown by Orientals — Captain Marryatfs Story — 
The " Battle of Shanghae." 

We had a delightful passage of about sixty days from Syd- 
ney to Shanghae. The sea w^as so smooth that we might have 
come in safety in a small boat, and the light winds and fair 
weather made om* long passage seem short by allowing us to 
amuse ourselves on deck, by reading in the day time, studying 
astronomy at niglit, and an occasional game of sJiovel-hooi'dj 
the standard amusement of ennuyes on shij^board. Our only 
excitements w^ere the occasional violent squalls prevalent m 
that part of the ocean, which, as they give no warning, some- 
times caught us with everythhig set and laid us right over on 
our side, frequently carrying away something aloft, and always 
occasioning a fearful disturbance in the steward's department. 
We had also two adventures ; the losing of a boy overboard, 
and seeing a whale, which remained for a quarter of an hour 
wdthin a cable's length of the ship. Though both these inci- 
dents were exciting, and the first saddening to us at the tune, 
I feel that a description would be out of place. Any one can 
realize to himself the unfortunate boy, struggling in the water, 
unable to swim, impeded by his sea-boots and heavy clothing, 
and finally sinking, in full view of the ship, not two minutes 
before the arrival at the spot, of the boat desj^atched to his 
rescue. The whale is still less difiicult to imagine. A black 
slimy bank, covered with barnacles, visible for a few minutes, 



38 China. 

and then sinking to appear soon in another direction, is all we 
saw of the leviathan. 

The 25th of June was foggy, and so thick that we dared 
not run for land, although we saw indications of its proit- 
imity in the quantities of cuttle-fish bones on the water, rock- 
weed, and one yellow water-snake about four feet long. On 
the 26th we got soundings in thirty-five fathoms, and as it 
cleared up iu the morning, we stood in for land, which we 
continued doing although the fog soon closed in again. About 
ten o'clock, just as we had tacked, having given up the at- 
tempt to make land, the fog rose just long enough to show 
us Leuconia on the port beam, and " The Brothers," two 
rocky islands, on the starboard quarter. We must have 
passed dangerously near the last. We thus ascertained our 
position for the first time in two days, and ran with confi- 
dence for the Barren Islands, which we made at two o'clock. 
Thence we steered for the Saddle-rocks, which are at the 
mouth of the Shanghae river, and anchored within them 
about eight in the evening. For the last two hours we had 
a man in the chains, sounding with a hand-lead — a precau- 
tion which is necessary in the Yang-tze-kiang, on account of 
the great shallowness of the river, the numerous banks and 
mud-flats, and the channel not being marked by any buoys 
or landmarks. The next morning we found ourselves among 
three or four other ships at anchor, the land nowhere visible, 
the water of the colour of coffee and consistency of chocolate — 
I mean both as prepared for diinking, which the river cer- 
tainly is not. The weather was thick and unpromising ; but 
as it cleared up early in the day, we made sail, and anchored 
at Woosung, without adventure, at 4^ P. M. We had taken 
a Chinese pilot before noon. He boarded us in a two- 
masted native boat, of about ten tons, which held some 
twenty-five men, who aU talked, screamed, and jabbered at 
once, and at such a rate that we thought they were in dis- 
tress. Once delivered of the pilot, however, their noise ceased, 
and they relieved our ears and olfactories of their noisome 
presence. The pilot laboured under the disadvantage of not 
understanding English ; his whole attainments consisting in a 



North China. 39 

limited knowledge of the " pigeon-English," the lingua franca 
in which foreigners converse with Chinese shop-keepers and 
servants. This " pigeon-English" consists of English words, 
with a few Chinese intermixed. The idiom is Chinese, the 
nouns having no inflection, the verbs no conjugation. The 
first question of our captain may serve as a good specimen — ■ 
" How many piecy Mellikan ship-poo have got top-side that 
river?" by which he meant, "How many American ships are 
there up the river ?" This pigeon-EngUsh is a real language, 
and it takes a stranger a month or more before he can speak 
it with fluency. Grammatical English is perfectly unintelligi- 
ble to the Chinese. They learn this peculiar dialect from 
native teachers, who make a living by giving instruction to 
those wishing to enter the establishments of Europeans, or 
who expect to have business with them as shopkeepers. 

The banks of the Yang-tze-kiang are low and level, with 
no landmarks, and piloting is rather difiicult. The fellow we 
had, however, did very well until we reached the mouth of 
the Wang-poo river, at the hamlet of Woosung, where we 
found many foreign ships at anchor. As we turned to go up 
the Wang-poo, the pilot so mismanaged things as nearly to 
run us ashore, and then, getting frightened, he jumped into a 
native boat which was passing under our stern, and we saw 
no more of him. 

We anchored at Woosung, and next morning, leaving the 
ship in the care of a European pilot, ascended the Wang-poo, 
in a pilot boat, to Shanghae — twelve miles. The Wang-poo 
is, in most parts, more than a mile broad, and is navigable for 
the largest ships. We passed several very large junks, some 
propelled by sail alone, and some by oars as well. I was sur- 
prised by seeing how fast they sailed, and how very manage- 
able was their rig. 

At a turn of the river, we came in sight of the foreign 
settlement, extending for a mile and a half, or more, on the 
left bank of the river ; and a half-mile above it the Chinese 
city now came into view, with the countless fleet of junks 
which always lie in the river. Lower down were twenty or 
thirty European vessels. The houses of the European settle- 



40 China. 

ment are always of large size, built commonly of stone, covered 
with stucco ; and as they are not crowded together, but each 
residence is in a spacious conipou7id^ or square, which includes 
the stores and a large garden, the whole effect is very good. 
Before many of the hongs^ as the residences of foreigners are 
termed, rose tall flag-staffs, bearing the flag of the power of 
which the proprietor of the hong was Consul. The first 
buildings which we passed were the American Episcopal Mis- 
sion, a large white building, with a gothic chapel in its com- 
pound. This mission, and those of other societies, are separated 
by a creek from the rest of the settlement. The next house was 
her Majesty's consulate, which looked quite palatial, with its 
long row of great columns, and the fine gardens which surround 
it. Then came the establishments of the important firm of Jar- 
dine, Matheson & Co., (perhaps the largest commercial house in 
the East,) and those of other English business firms, and last, 
the two large buildings belonging to the great American house 
of Russell & Co. In the midst was the Chinese Custom 
House, a regular native wooden building, with two flag-staffs, 
from which floated pennants of the Imperial yellow. Behind 
this Ime of hongs, which front on the himd^ as the quay is 
called, are the residences of the other merchants, all on the 
same magnificent scale. 

We landed, and in accordance with the hospitable eastern 
custom, which welcomes any stranger to take up his residence, 
without invitation, at the house of any resident with whom he 
may be, however slightly, acquainted, proceeded at once to the 
house of B. N". & Co., to whom our ship was consigned. 

On the way to the house we met several Europeans, in 
sedan chairs, each carried by two Chinamen. The costume of 
the foreigners struck me as delightfully cool and sensible. 
White canvass shoes, white cotton trowsers and jacket, no 
waistcoat, and a sola tox^ee^ forms the universal dress. The 
sola topee is a helmet, or broad-brimmed hat, made of pith, 
half-an-inch thick. It does not fit to the head, but rests on a 
frame work which does. It thus allows a constant ciixulation 
of air, and the pith is at once so thick and so light, as to pre- 
vent the ill-effects of the sun's rays, and not to inconvenience 



North China. 41 

the wearer by its weight. This same dress is worn, even to 
full dress dinners — a sensible custom, contrasting strikingly 
with the regulations of society in India, which compel one to 
put on a full black dress suit when going out for the evening. 

On landing in China, every stranger at once provides him- 
self with a Chinese servant, (" boy " as he is called,) who acts 
as valet, waits on him at table, and accompanies him wher- 
ever he may go out to dine. Should he not do this, he will 
find himself totally unserved, as each foreigner has one boy, 
and no one of them wiU wait on anybody but his master. 

I spent about two weeks in the foreign settlement, and the 
description of one day will do for almost any other. I was 
called by my servant, about 8^ o'clock, who put out clean 
clothes and got my bath ready in one of those large porcelam 
bathing tubs that we sometimes see in this country. Conve- 
niencies for fuU ablutions are always attached to every room 
in the East. At half-past nine we had breakfast, which most 
of the company made every day of rice, fish and eggs, mixed 
into one mess. Breakfast commonly lasted an hour, and the 
gentlemen then went into the ofiice to business. I should 
have mentioned before, that all the clerks and subordinates of 
these establishments, live in the same houses with their prin- 
cipals, and all take their meals together. At half-past two, 
we had tiffin^ or lunch, which would be called a dinner in this 
country, and at which large quantities of "East India Pale 
Ale," the favourite beverage of the Orient, are commonly 
consumed. At five, we dressed in flannel, and went out for a 
drive on the race course, the only road which is passable for 
carriages ; this part of China being entirely cut up by canals, 
by means of which, or on men's shoulders, all goods are trans- 
ported. The drive generally lasted an hour and a half, and 
on our return, we dressed again for dinner, which was on tlie 
table by eight. While on the subject of dressing, I should 
have mentioned, that ladies in the east generally wear low 
necked dresses all day long, which must, I should think, con 
duce much to their comfort. 

Dinners, in the East, are always on a great scale. It is the 
event of the day — the consummation, of which the tifiin is the 



42 



China, 



bright foreshadowing. Silver services always deck the board, 
abundant and numerous courses prolong the entertainment, 
wine and beer stimulate and aid digestion, while the swinging 
punkah dissipates the otherwise oppressive heat. There is 
always a chair and a cover for any friend who may choose to 
drop in — to provide for which contingency, the eatables are 
on a liberal scale, which would make an American housewife 
shudder. The entire care of the household is in the hands of the 
Chinese servants, who submit to no interference, and make no 
exceptions to the daily routine. The consequence is, that I have 
sometimes sat down alone to a dinner which would have been 
amj^le for a dozen. This is, perhaps, an appropriate place for 
describing the punkah, that instrument which is so important 
a part of the comforts of an eastern climate. It consists of a 
square frame, two-thirds as long as the room it is hung in, 
and usually about four feet wide, suspended by cords from the 
ceiling, so that its lower edge, from which dejDends a fringe, is 
about seven feet from the floor. This instrument is kept con- 
stantly swinging, by a rope attached to one side of it, and 
passing out to the verandah, where it is pulled by a servant. 
It operates as a gigantic fan, and is a delightful alleviation to 
the intense heat of the climate. In China, punkahs are only 
used in the dining-rooms, and over the desks of some mer- 
chants ; but in India, every room has one, and they are pulled 
all night long in the bed-rooms, by relays of punkah-walas. 

During my stay at Shanghae, I made several visits to the 
native town. It is situated on the banks of the river, about 
half a mile above the extremity of the foreign settlement. 
The city is surrounded by massive stone walls, the gateways 
being strong towers, defended by outworks. At each gate- 
way was a detachment of Chinese soldiers, dirty ragamuffins, 
whose uniform consisted of a blue cotton shirt, with the Chi- 
nese word for " soldier " embroidered on the breast and back. 
They were mostly armed with long and awkward matchlocks, 
and seemed to pass their time in smoking opium and gambling. 

All the cities in the north of China are accessible to foreign- 
ers, who are seldom annoyed by the Chinese. The country, 
too, is entirely open, and any one can penetrate as far as he 



North China. 43 

pleases. In this, as in other respects, the Northern Chinese 
present a remarkable contrast to the men of Canton and the 
south. These latter are a taller and finer race, but marked 
by an mtense hatred of the "Fan-qui" (foreign devil). They 
will not allow strangers to go into the country even as far as 
they are permitted by treaty, viz : a day's journey, or to 
penetrate into any of their towns. At the north, however, 
the people are a far happier, pleasanter race, detesting the 
Canton men, and showing rather a liking for foreigners. As 
before remarked, occidentals can penetrate into the interior 
as far as they choose, the only risk being that of offending 
some mandarin, any of whom possesses, by treaty, the power of 
dispatching all foreign travellers to the sea-coast, where a fine 
of $400 is imposed. 

One Chinese city, as I have been assured by men who had 
seen many, is precisely like every other. How this may be I 
do not know, as I have been in the interior of one only ; but 
if they are all like Shanghae, they must be the most uninter- 
esting cities in the world, as soon as the novelty of their com- 
mon peculiarities has worn ofi*. 

Within the walls of Shanghae there is a space left vacant 
between the town and the ramparts, that the inhabitants may 
not be in the immediate vicinity of the belligerents in case of 
an attack. The town itself consists of low two-story houses, 
with stone partition walls and wooden fronts. They are 
mostly occupied as shops, in which case the lower story is 
entirely open. When the house is used as a dwelling exclu- 
sively, it is generally situated some distance back from the 
street, and the view cut ofi:' by a wall which entirely se^^arates 
it from the public thoroughfare. The streets are very narrow, 
and no wheeled conveyances are ever used. Ther^ are no 
public buildmgs worth mentioning. The great court of jus- 
tice is merely an open shed at one end of a large court-yard ; 
and the principal houses of the town, as regards height and 
size, are certainly the pawnbrokers' shops. Pawnbroking is, 
m China, a most important business. All Chinese dress well, 
most of them wearing numerous silk robes and furs in the cold 
weather. Now as the severe cold only lasts for three months 



44 China. 

of the year, they deposit their magnificent habiliments at the 
pawnbrokers' for safe keeping dming the other nine. Beside 
this use these establishments also answer the same pm-pose as 
the like establishments elsewhere. 

The temples in Shanghae are not very good of their kind. 
The form is the same as that of others I have seen. A high 
wall encloses a court within which, at the further extremity, 
is the statue or painting of the threefold Boodh. In the cen- 
tre of the court is a bronze urn where scraps of paper and 
sticks of punk burn in honour of the deity. The idol is also 
protected by a roof which completely covers the further third 
of the enclosure. The room thus formed is entkely open 
towards the court and is usually gaily decorated. Around 
the wall are frequently arranged the statues of minor gods, in 
whose honour the joss-stick (punk) defiles the air with its 
foetid smoke. The largest temple in Shanghae is connected 
in some way with the government, and the mandarins go 
there every week to worship. In it the statue of Boodh is 
about eighteen feet high, the smaller effigies which surround 
it being twelve feet in height. I suppose it is generally known, 
by this time, that educated Chinese have no religion, and the 
lower classes just as much as they find convenient. So far as 
I could judge, no worship is ever ofifered by the laity — the 
whole form consisting in the chaunting of certain Sanscrit 
services by the monks. A pious layman propitiates the gods 
by the simple and compendious process of lighting a few sticks 
of punk in their honour. The fact of the Boodhist services 
being in Sanscrit is a remarkable testimony to the Indian 
origin of that religion. This fact was long overlooked, the 
Chinese priests being themselves ignorant that the sounds 
w^hich they sung, and which were represented by Chinese 
characters, had any meaning in any language. This plan of 
representing foreign sounds by Chinese characters has been 
long practised by the Roman Cathohc missionaries, who de- 
note in this. way, in their Chinese service-books, the Latin 
w^ords of the Mass. I have heard a Chinese congregation in 
the Romish cathedral at Shanghae, singing, "Ola pelo nobi!" 
to a Gregorian tune, with as much earnestness as if their Ian- 



North China." 45 

guage permitted them to represent or pronounce the true 
Latin sounds of " Ora irt^o nobis l'^'' 

One of the most mterestiug sights in Shangliae is the tea- 
garden. This is an open space in the middle of the city, ar- 
ranged on Chinese principles of landscape gardening. There 
are ponds of green slime, brooks of standing water, artificial 
rocks which look like nothing in nature, and bridges in the 
shape of the celebrated structure which we have all admired 
on the loilloio-icare plates. In this garden are numerous tea- 
houses whither the Chinese resort in the evening to partake 
of their favourite beverage. The buildings are one or two 
stories high and open all round. They usually can accommo- 
date from fifty to two hundred persons, seated two by two at 
small tables, as in a European cafe, No edibles are furnished 
at these establishments, but the heated wines and spirits of 
which the Chinese are so fond may be obtained, and it is 
almost universal for hahitues to smoke as they drink and con- 
verse with their opposite neighbours in the soft-flowing accents 
of their native land. To a stranger these places seem anything 
but a deliojhtful resort. All of one's senses are assailed and 
tortured at once. The breezes which fan the revellers having 
come first across the town, and having been freshened by the 
varied odours of the ponds before mentioned, are far from 
bahny ; the smoke of the Chinese tobacco is positively stink- 
ing; and the accents of the vernacular, now guttural as Arabic, 
now nasal as Yankee, and all screamed in those "tones as 
trumpet loud" which I have only elsewhere heard in the Pa- 
risian bourse^ and certain New York parties, make the visitor 
indescribably nervous. When you add to this that many of 
those present, for greater ease, remove all garments but their 
very short trowsers, that the Chinese have a constitutional 
aversion to water as a means of ablution, and that the habit 
of eructation is the recognized exhibition of gastronomic grat- 
ification among the most pohshed oriental society, the picture 
of this Celestial symposium is complete. 

Shanghae is the head quarters of the Romish missions in 
China. Their establishment is near the river's bank above the 
Chinese city. They have a large and massive cathedral in the 



46 China. 

Italian style, and several other buildings, used as habitatioi^s 
for the priests and as school houses. The whole is under the 
protection of the French consul, and the imperial tricolour 
floats from a flag staff in the compound. I visited this mis- 
sion one Sunday afternoon, arriving during the singing of the 
" Litany to the Virgin," and was much pleased with the ear- 
nestness with which a numerous congregation of Chinese 
chaunted the responses to a mediseval tune. I sujopose, after 
all, they understood as little of what they were saying as the 
Boodhist priests do of their Sanscrit liturgy. The priests and 
acolytes officiating at the altar wore a peculiar and very gay 
head-dress which I took to be one of those extraordinary 
properties (to use a theatrical term) which the Romish church 
occasionally permits, to secure the attention of the wavering 
faithful and attract them to her services by the meretricious 
fascination of scenic display. 

After the service was concluded, I was invited to join the 
resident missionaries at their afternoon repast. There were 
about ten at table, all Frenchmen, but dressed in Chinese cos- 
tume, and wearing the greater part of their heads shaven, 
with the long cue behind. The collation consisted of rice, 
fruits, nuts, and wine; and I found my entertainers very 
pleasant and intelligent men. Only one of the number spoke 
English, the conversation being chiefly in French. Their cus- 
tom is to make this mission their head-quarters, and from this 
point begin their excursions into the country, where they 
often remain for years, returning again to the sea-coast when 
they have excited the suspicions of the authorities, or are ex- 
hausted by long continued labours, and the want of congenial 
society. The Romish missionaries have, it is well known, 
large numbers of Christian disciples in the empire; but I 
learned from these fathers that they no longer endeavour to 
make new converts, finding their time fully occupied in taking 
care of those already under their guidance. These gentlemen 
had all known M. Hue, the celebrated author of a work on 
China, and a book of travels in Thibet. They avowed, how- 
ever, that they had not entire confidence in his narrative ; 



North China. 47 

and the light, that in his writings, he had frequently given way 
to the temptation of telling travellers'' tales. 

During my stay at Shanghae, I witnessed the state visit 
of the Taootai (collector), the principal Chinese magistrate of 
the district, to Mr. Cunningham, the Consul for Sweden. 
The cortege was composed of about 250 civil and military 
attendants, the whole being preceded by gongs and discor- 
dant musical instruments. The great man himself, and one or 
two others, were mounted on wretched Uttle ponies, but all his 
followers were on foot. The soldiers had no uniformity in 
their equipment, some being armed vrith lances, some with 
swords, and a few with even more extraordinary weapons. 
The most remarkable part of the company were some execu- 
tioners, with whips, swords, and other instruments of punish- 
ment and torture, to be used summarily on all who should not 
treat their master with proper respect. Many of the soldiers 
had two swords in one scabbard, which were intended to be 
used in combat, one in each hand. 

I saw no executions in China, but they are very frequent, 
and occasionally very cruel. About a year before I arrived in 
the country, the town of Shanghae had been occupied by 
some rebels, and held for a considerable time against the Im- 
perial forces. When the place was taken, about five per cent. 
of the captives were reserved to be tortured, and all the 
remainder were executed in a peculiarly Chinese style. Their 
tails were tied to a bamboo supported above the head, and 
the neck was then neatly cut through by one stroke of a 
sword, the body falling to the ground, and the head remain- 
ing suspended in a convenient position for subsequent collec- 
tion. Many thousands of persons were thus disposed of, and 
their heads packed in baskets, to be exhibited in public situa- 
tions. I saw two or three over the gates of the city. The 
Chinese, like other Oriental nations, seem to show great in- 
difference to pain, and even death ; whether inflicted by or 
upon themselves. Suicides are common, from the slightest 
motives ; and the legal punishments are of frightful severity. 
Another proof of this, to us, inexplicable peculiarity, is the 
well known fact that vicarious punishment is recognized by 



48 China. 

the Chinese law, and that substitutes may be hired to undergo 
every legal penalty, even death itself. An additional fact, 
corroborating this ^dew, is, that great pirates and robbers 
have been frequently known to surrender themselves for trial, 
when a large reward had been offered for their apprehension ; 
in order that their families might be rendered comfortable for 
life, by the price of their blood. This singular obtuseness to 
bodily suffering is found, more or less, among all Orientals. 
The most fearful tortures will rarely extract an avowal of 
guilt, or the betrayal of a confederate. Captain Marryatt 
tells a story of a Malay, whom he caught, when on service in 
the Eastern seas. The Captain was nearly sure that his cap- 
tive possessed certain information which he wished to obtain, 
and finding all bribery and gentle means unavailing to make 
him speak, finally threatened him with death, and ordered a 
file of marines to be got ready for the purpose. The man was 
not in the least disturbed, but requested leave to finish a segar 
which he was smoking ; and permission being given, he sat 
down in a port for the purpose. In a few minutes, however, 
he threw his segar away, though but half consumed, complain- 
ing that it did not draw well, and at once began to make 
preparations for his own death, by binding up his long hair in 
a knot, on the top of his head, and unwrapping the c^Ao^ee, a 
long cloth worn about the loins. Folding his dhotee^ and lay- 
ing it on the deck to catch his blood, he knelt down, and 
waited with perfect unconcern for the fatal stroke. Captain 
Marryatt, findmg that even this means was ineffectual in over- 
coming the obstinacy of his prisoner, was unwilling to take 
life unnecessarily, and had him sent ashore, after giving him 
some slight presents, in admiration of his plucTc. 

It was in the course of the siege of Shanghae, to which I 
have alluded above, that the celebrated attack by about two 
hundred English and Americans on several thousand Chinese, 
occurred. The Imperial troops had taken up such a position, 
that the cannon-bails fired by them and the rebels in the town, 
constantly fell among the houses of the foreign settlement. 
As this was sufficiently disagreeable and dangerous, notice was 
given to the Imperial commander, that he had better change 



North China. 45 

his point of attack. He, however, persisted in remaining 
where he was, and the above number of Anglo-Saxons started 
one morning, with several small cannon, and a few marines 
and sailors from the ships, to dislodge him, and the force 
under his command. They succeeded in effecting their pur- 
pose, though at the cost of several lives, and numerous 
wounds. On taking possession of the Chinese position, it was 
found that there was an immense piece of artillery, masked, 
and crammed to the muzzle with all sorts of projectiles, which 
completely commanded the road up which the American de- 
tachment had marched to the attack. Had the Chinese been 
able to discharge this cannon, they would probably have 
killed or wounded most of the Americans who were concerned 
in this escapade. 

3 



CHAPTER V. 

A TRIP INLAND. 

Leave Shanghae for a Trip up the Canals — Our Boat — Swimming — Banks of the Canal — 
Military Stations — Temples — Graves — Villages— Dress of Chinese — Town of Kwnn- 
san — Grain Junks — Comparison of Chinese and American Governments — This part 
of China once Suhmerged — Cormorants — Approach to Soo-Chow — The City — "For- 
eign Devils" — Grand Canal — Heat — Hills near Soo-Chow — View of Ty-hao — Manda- 
rin's Tomb — Tyhao— Chinese Eiver Thieves — Their Honesty. 

Having spent about two weeks, as above described, in the 
foreign settlement of Shanghae, I became anxious to see a 
little more of the country, than I had had the opportunity of 
observing in the walks and sails which we occasionally took 
in the afternoon. It fortunately happened that an English 
gentleman, whose acquaintance I had formed in Shanghae 
was about to go up the canals, for a ten-day excursion in his 
boat, and he kindly invited me to bear him company. 

We started on the afternoon of the eleventh of July, and 
proceeded up the canal until about ten o'clock, when we an- 
chored, and all hands turned in except one man, left awake to 
guard against robbers. Our boat was a regular Chinese junk- 
shaped craft, square in the bow and stern. Her mast could 
be lowered when not required, and she sailed remarkably well 
before the wind, under her one sail of mats ; but on the wind, 
her flat bottom prevented her from doing much. When there 
was no wind, we put two or three men ashore, and let them 
tow us by a rope made fast to the mast head. The man who 
remained on board assisted by sculling with one of those long, 
heavy, permanent sculls, with which all Chinese canal boats 
are furnished, and which act at once to propel aud to steer the 
vessel. Our boat's crew consisted of three or four sailors and 
a mate, who also acted as cook and servant. The length of 
the boat was about twenty-five feet. Of this, about twelve 



A Trip Inland. ^i 

feet in the waist was occuj^ied by the cabin, which was what 
is termed half-poop, with windows in the sides. Low lockers 
which held wine, beer, &c., ran on each side the whole length 
of the apartment, and served as settees by day and couches 
by night. The remaining space was occupied by the table. 
There was, altogether, much more room than one had a right 
to expect on a boat of the size, and we had in her a most 
agreeable home during the trip. Of course we had to take 
wine, beer, coifee, bacon, butter, sugar, and such delicacies 
with us ; but we found, wherever we went, an ample supply 
of eggs, fowls, fish, and a few other substantial. 

On waking on the morning of the second day, we found 
ourselves, in a flat, but very pretty country, with numerous 
large trees, and a village on the side of the canal a little way 
ahead. We at once jumped into the canal, which was tolera- 
bly clean, and swam on ahead of the boat, which had been 
towing slowly since day broke. As we swam past the village 
before mentioned, the inhabitants espied us, and rushed down 
in a crowd to the water's edge. They were surprised by 
three things— Jirst, by the sight of our white, and in their 
eyes, leprous-looking skins, since outside barbarians rarely go 
uj) this canal, and still more rarely expose their heads as we 
were doing, to the full force of the sun's rays ; Becondly^ by 
the fact of our swimming at all, as the inland Chinese are 
rarely adepts in the natatory art ; Thirdly^ and this would be 
the most marvellous feature of the case in a Chinaman's eyes, 
that we should voluntarily make the exertion to swim, when 
we could go so much more easily, in our boat. Having 
astonished the innocent natives, by swimming on our backs, 
treading water, turning summersaults, and other equally un- 
dignified performances, we terminated the exhibition with the 
fearful hurrah^ which is so pecuhar a characteristic of the for- 
eign white-skinned and red-haired devil, and soon afterwards 
reentered our boat for breakfast. 

The banks of the canals in China, are mostly so high, that, 
from a boat like ours, the fields on each side are quite invisi- 
ble^ — the view from our cabin windows being generally re- 
markably similar to that which regales the eyes Of railway 



52 China. 

travellers, when passing through deep cuttings. We used, 
however, for some hours each day, to go ashore, and walk on 
the towing path, from which we could see the canal and coun- 
try round. The features of the country during the first day 
were remarkably tame, but the large number of boats on the 
canal, and foot passengers on the tow-path, relieved the 
monotony. The levee is raised on each side several feet above 
the general level of the land, and is commonly about two 
hundred feet broad. It is not cultivated, but covered with 
graves. Beyond were cultivated fields, generally of rice, and 
carefully irrigated by water raised from the canal, and con- 
ducted in channels, continually subdividing to every inch of 
soil that required watering. Every quarter of a mile at least, 
the levee was interrupted to give passage to the waters of a 
tributary canal ; some large and intended for traffic, some 
small and used only for irrigating purposes. At such points 
the tow-path is continued by a stone bridge, passing over the 
subordinate canal ; but these bridges, like most other public 
works which I saw in China, seemed to be generally in bad 
repair. "We also passed frequently, military stations — wooden 
houses about thirty feet square, and generally out of order 
and deserted, either from the troops having been called up 
country to oppose the rebels, or from the military mandarin's 
finding it profitable to draw the money for their support from 
the imperial treasury, without going to the expense of keeping 
them up. Joss-houses, as foreigners ca,ll the Boodhist temples, 
were also of frequent occurrence on the levees, but no care 
seemed to be taken of them, and, in many instances, they 
were used either as workshops, or as storehouses for grain or 
agricultural implements. Their shajoe and internal arrange- 
ments were the same as I have before described, when speak- 
ing of similar buildings in Shanghae. 

The graves which I have before said cover the levees, seem 
here to merit a description. When a Chinese dies, his body, 
protected from ofiensive decomposition by quick-lime and 
similar substances, is encased in numerous coffins, the outer 
one being as magnificent a specimen of the joiner's art as the 
relatives can afibrd. Thus encased, the coi-pse is either kept 



A Trip Inland. j'g 

m the house, or deposited m the open air with a sUght arched 
covering of bamboo and mats. At the end of a year, if the 
family can bear the expense, the coffin is covered in with 
stone or stuccoed brick work, or is sometimes buried in the 
earth, a headstone being erected to mark the spot. The 
headstone is generally of the shape usual in our cemeteries, 
or else is a mere square pillar of unhewn granite, with the 
name roughly carved upon it. In many mstances, however, 
the people are too poor to erect a tomb, however simple, and 
the coffin with its contents is then allowed to go to decay, the 
body bemg generally devoured by rats. When this consum- 
mation is complete, the dutiful survivors collect whatever 
bones and other remnants of mortality can be discovered, and 
enclosing them in a small earthen vessel, protect them by 
some permanent covering. These cinerary urns are known 
among foreigners by the irreverent name of "potted ancestors." 
The Chinese, like the Hindoos, attach an exaggerated import- 
ance to funeral honours, though they do not, like the latter, 
believe them to have any bearing on their future happiness. 
M. Hue says, what I understood to be strictly true, that a Chi- 
naman when sick unto death, will often deny himself the 
expensive luxuries of a physician and medicines, preferring to 
reserve the money to buy a coffin, and pay for the post-mortem 
indulgence of a stone tomb. 

It often struck me as singular, that so thoroughly utilitarian 
a people as the Flowery Nation, who are so loath to allow the 
least waste of any thing that can be turned to account, and 
tax so unremittingly the productive energies of every inch ol 
soil, should be willing to give up so much good ground to the 
dead who are of no use to any one ; but I suppose that there 
are none of us poor mortals without our little inconsistencies, 
and that a contempt for this mortal coil, such as was for 
many years witnessed in the condition of Washington's last 
resting place, can only come with a very high degree of 
civilization. 

Every mile or so, along the line of the canal, we passed villages 
or hamlets, either commercial or agricultural. In the former case, 
the hoiLses were built in a long row on each bank ; in the latter. 



54 China. 

they were commonly situated a little way back in the country, 
and frequently sheltered and adorned by fine large trees. The 
Chinese peasant is generally a free-holder, and allows the 
shades of no tree to interfere with the patch of ground which 
has come down to him, diminished in size by continued testa, 
mentary subdivision. For this same reason the cultivators 
live in villages, choosing for their location, a comparatively 
unproductive spot, and being thus enabled doubly to econo- 
mize ground, and moreover to enjoy the shade of trees. On 
the banks of the canal which is nearest a village, there are 
always several irrigating machines, which raise the water to the 
level of the embankment, from which it flows in channels to 
every part of the land owned by the villagers. These machines 
consist of an endless chain, travelling round a wheel below the 
level of the water in the canal, and moved by a light windlass 
on the bank, being the same in principal as the Yankee " chain 
pump." The ascending part of the chain, passes through 
a water-tight tube, up which it carries the water, forced into 
the tube and retamed there by projections from the chain like 
the hox of a steam-piston. The windlass is generally near the 
ground, and moved by the feet like a treadmill. Each machine 
requires one or tw^o men or women to work it, and a slight 
shed protects the workmen from the sun. The country people 
seem a hard-working, economical, but light-hearted and cheer- 
ful people. Their houses, in the villages, however small, are 
generally of stone and thatched, and appear comfortable, while 
the universal order and neatness which everywhere meet the 
eye, show that however contracted may be their means, there 
is not among them the same wretchedness as there is among 
the ryuts of India, or the lowest classes in Europe. The dress 
of those natives, whom we saw working in the fields, consisted 
of a very broad but short species of trowsers for both sexes, 
the upper part of the body being covered by a jacket reaching 
to the middle, but rather longer in the case of women. This 
is the dress of the lower classes throughout China, in whatever 
occupation engaged. The material is generally coarse cotton, 
frequently dyed black. The head is protected during labour- 
ing hours in the open fields, by a hat of basket-work, resting 



A Trip Inland, 5^ 

on the head, but not fitting to it, and retained in its position 
by strings. The better classes, in the cities, wear the same 
trowsers, but of silk, and gathered below into a stocking made 
of cotton cloth ; their coats are long, reaching below the knee, 
and are of some fine material. Women wear nearly the same 
dress as the men in both cases. Both sexes frequently remove 
the ahirt or coat when in the shade, retaining only the short 
trowsers, but in this case, the women always cover the breasts 
by a short, red boddice, about six inches broad, fastened be- 
hind the shoulders. I have often seen girls of ten or twelve 
with no other covering of any sort, than this narrow waist. 
The head is generally left uncovered in the case of both sexes, 
except when on a journey, or during long continued exposure 
to the sun's rays. 

About ten o'clock in the morning, we arrived at Kwun-san, 
a to^vn of several hundred thousand inhabitants, defended by 
stone walls about thirty feet high, and a broad ditch formed 
by the waters of the canals which centre here, and some of 
which pass completely through the toT\'n. It was here that I 
first saw the grain junks, vessels remarkably similar in their 
shape to the ]SFoah?s Arks that children have for toys. They 
have often a capacity of two or three thousand tons according 
to our measurement, and were formerly used to convey the 
tribute of grain from the northern provinces to Pekin, via the 
Grand Canal. Within ten years, however, the officials have 
found it cheaper to send the corn in j^rivate junks, via the 
Yangtze-kiang, so the poor old grain junks are now laid up in 
ordinary, and are most of them inhabited by a disreputable 
set of vagabonds, who are supposed to be the crew, and as 
such draw pay from government. The Chinese government, 
as at present administered, seems in some respects remarkably 
Hke ours. The first great resemblance is, that in theory it is 
perfect, and in practice works remarkably badly. Secondly, 
it is a mere machine for collecting taxes, and enriching those 
who can put themselves into ofiice by bribery or any other 
means. Thirdly, the officials have no power excej^t when sup- 
ported by public opinion, and fourthly, the government has 
lost the respect of the people, w^ho, m case of difficulty, con- 



56 China. 

sider a government official the last person to go to for advice 
or redress. 

Soon after passing Kwun-san, we saw on our right the hill 
of the same name. It is not very high, but is of a conical 
shape, and becomes a conspicuous object from the general flat- 
ness of the country. This hill is owned by the Boodhists, and 
crowned by a monastery. It is ascended by a winding path, 
paved with stone and bordered by rows of trees. AH this 
part of China was formerly under water, and records remain 
of a period when these hiUs were islands in the ocean. 

Leaving Kwun-san we passed into another canal somewhat 
larger than that upon which we had come thus £ir. The embank- 
ments were now supported by a water-wall of squared stones, 
which was, however, in many places, in want of repairs. Crowds 
of boats of all sizes now filled the canal, and frequently compel- 
led us to stop for some minutes before we could obtain a pas- 
sage. During the afternoon we passed through a lake of 
considerable size, but shallow. The course of the canal was 
here marked by a stone causeway, which served as a tow- 
path and bridge. I saw upon this lake many boats fishing 
with cormorants. They are filthy looking birds of the vul- 
ture kind and about the size of a turkey. When unoccupied, 
they perch upon the gunwale of the boat, each bird wearing a 
brass ring round its neck to prevent its swallowing any fish it 
may catch. At a word from their master they soar over the 
lake like gulls, and like them dart upon their prey the moment 
the unwary fish approaches the surface. At another signal, 
the obedient bird brings the booty to its master, and does not 
leave the boat a second time until it receives the word of com- 
mand. 

We were now approaching Soo-chow, a city of about two 
millions of inhabitants, though in China not of the first class. 
During the afternoon we had passed two express-boats^ light 
canoes, holding only a single person, who paddles along at a 
tremendous pace. These express-boats are dispatched to 
Shanghae every day, to convey to the Chinese merchants there 
the price of opium at Soo-chow, which is the great depot of 
this drug for the interior. The approach to Soo-chow was 



A Trip Inland. ^7 

marked by a large number of boats and the widening of the 
canal, which encircles the city in a moat, a quarter of a mile 
broad. The town is walled, and is about twelve miles in cir- 
cuit. We i>assed around two sides of it and then entered and 
rowed through a part of the city, emerging on a third side. 
The cities in this part of the country are all like Venice, in 
being traversed by canals, but unlike that city are also provi- 
ded with causeways for foot passengers, running along the 
canals. The general appearance of the streets was similar to 
that of Shanghae. As it was now approaching evening, and 
the heat of the day was past, we made our appearance on the 
outside of our boat, and at once became the cynosure of all 
eyes. The public followed us in crowds during our progress, 
saluting us with the oft rej^eated cry of Qui-tsa, Qui-tse, 
yang-qui-tsa, terms conveying at once our diabolical charac- 
ter, and the conventional attributes of whiteness and red-hair, 
which are supposed to mark the outside barbarian. This was 
the first piece of discourtesy of which we had to complain, and 
my friend, who had been a good deal mland, and sometimes 
quite alone, told me that he had seldom had cause to fear 
violence. Whenever he had been stoned or pelted with mud 
he always found that by lacing the enemy and stroking his 
beard, at the same time appealing to that sense of politeness 
which is so strong in the Chinese, he at once put a stop to all 
rudeness. He considered his beard a great advantage, as 
among Chinese, none but a grandfather can wear one, and 
respect for old age is a most prominent feature in the charac- 
ter of this people. A beard is therefore more of a protection 
against popular violence in China, than grey hairs would be 
here. Inside the town the canal is frequently spanned by stone 
bridges, generally of a single arch and very high. On these 
bridges there was an immense crowd of gamins to see us pass 
under, but we always disappointed their curiosity by taking 
refuge in the cabin, my friend having discovered on previous 
occasions, that the peculiar effects of a dead cat, or rotten egg^ 
when falling or projected from an eminence, are as well under- 
stood in China as in the galleries of some theatres. Passing 
out of Soo-chow from another gate, we found ourselves on a 



58 CHina. 

broad piece of water, the deboucheinent of the Grand Canal. 
There was a great crowd of boats in all directions, but the pas- 
sage was clear to the Grand Canal, which opened directly in 
front, and was spanned by one of the largest single-arched 
bridges I have ever seen. We turned to the right, and 
passing through the crov/ded junks soon came to another canal, 
up which we went. The sides of this canal and the country 
in every direction around Soo-chow, are completely covered by 
the suburbs of the great city, which extend for more than two 
miles in this direction alone. In these suburbs I first saw 
monumental arches. They consist of four stone columns of 
from 15 to 25 feet high, surmounted by an entablature deco- 
rated with bronze ornaments. They are erected by private 
individuals in commemoration of some person or event. 

After clearing the outsldrts of this city, we again anchored 
for the night. The thermometer had been up to 95° in our 
cabin during the day, and fell only about ten degrees at night, 
so that we suffered considerably from the heat. The mos- 
quitoes, too, which abound on this and other canals, troubled 
us not a httle, as our quarters were too contracted to allow 
of rigging the mosquito nets properly. 

The next day found us among a range of hills,- perhaps 900 
feet high. As soon as we turned out, we determined to ascend 
them. There was a walk of a mile to the foot of the hills, 
across lice-fields which had been watered till they were soft 
mud for six or eight inches deep, and we could only obtain a 
footing by walking on the narrow banks of the little sluices 
which conducted the Avater in different directions. We had 
a hard climb of an hour to the summit, but when there, the 
view quite repaid us. On one side, about ten miles off, lay 
the city of Soo-chow, in a valley, still enveloped by mist, from 
which emerged its lofty pagodas. On the other, the great 
lake of China, the Ty-hao, lay spread out before us. The 
chain on which we stood, stretched thirty or forty miles on 
each side of us, separating the valley of the lake from that of 
the city. The rest of the country was a dead level, mth the 
silver network of the canals shining clearly out through the 
fog, which still lingered on the low ground. We went into a 



A Trip Inland, j;g 

small joss-house, which we found on top of the mountain, and 
ate a hght breakfist : after which we began our descent in a 
slightly different direction. The side of the hill by which we 
had ascended was almost bare, with only a few low scrub- 
bushes here and there. Our path in descending, however, led 
through a grove of pine-trees, surrounding a mandarin's tomb. 
The trees afforded us a j^leasant protection against the rays of 
the sun, which had now risen so high as to be uncomfortably 
warm. The tomb was in an enclosed space of about an acre 
and a half, surrounded by a stone wall, and planted with 
cypress and fir-trees. The enclosure was, in shape, a narrow 
paraUeUogram, and, as it was situated on the slope of the hill, 
had been divided into three smaller courts, separated by 
flights of stone steps to equahze the ascent. In each division 
was a pond, planted with lotuses, and surrounded by a stone 
coping ; and scattered about each, were uncouth and colossal 
statues of horses and dogs. At the highest extremity of the 
upper division was a stone temple, about twenty feet square, 
which, I supj^ose, held the body. The entrance was at the 
lowest extremity of the whole enclosure, the wall on each side 
being drawn out in a semicu-cle, broken by an ii'on gate about 
fifteen feet wide. Two* gigantic stone efiigies of watch-dogs 
acted as janitors. This was the largest private tomb wdiich 
I saw, but there were several others, on this same hill-side, on 
a similar plan, but smaller and less elaborately arranged. 
Subsequently we frequently saw these homes of the dead — the 
trees which they enclosed lending cheerfulness, and an appear- 
ance of nature, to the otherwise monotonous and artificial 
landscape. 

We joined our boat some distance further up the canal, 
about ten o'clock, and went steadily on all day toward the 
Ty-hao, keeping under the foot of the hills, round the extrem- 
ity of which it w^as necessary to pass to enter the lake. About 
nightfall, the canal widened into an open bight of water, and 
we were in an arm of the Ty-hao. We kept on till the inlet 
was a quarter of a mile broad, from one low bank to the other, 
and then anchored for the night in three feet of water. The 
canal through which we had come during the day, was nar- 



6o China, 

rower than either of those in which w^e had been the day 
before, and after returning from the ascent of the hill, we saw 
nothing of special interest. The heat was intense all day long, 
the thermometer standing, for six hours, at 98° in the shade. 
As nightfall did not bring much alleviation, we sought cool- 
ness, and a deliverance from the swarms of mosquitoes, by 
plunging into the muddy lake, in w^hich we continued for a 
couple of hours, lying under the water, supported by a short 
rope from the boat, and occasionally eluding the pursuit of 
a pertinacious mosquito by plunging wholly under the suiface. 
Before retiring for the night we loaded our revolvers, and 
fired them off twice, to fiighten off any pirates who might be 
in the vicinity. These canals and lakes are infested by pii-ates 
and water thieves, who levy black mail on all the weaker 
craft. They act, however, with no little moderation — seldom 
taking more than one third of a boat's cargo. This course 
commonly prevents a prosecution. Mr. Fortune, who was sent 
up country by the East India Company to buy tea-plants, was 
one night robbed, on one of these canals, of a tin box contain- 
ing all his papers and some silver dollars. The money was to 
him a matter of importance, but the loss of the papers was 
irreparable. A hole had been sawn in the side of the boat, 
and the box taken from under his pillow as he slept. He 
remained all day at the same place, trying, ineffectually, to 
discover some trace of the offenders, and had given up all 
hopes, when, the next night, his boat was hailed from the bank, 
and a voice informed them that if a man were sent ashore, 
he would find the box on the tow-path. He accordingly sent 
ashore and recovered his box, in which not an article had 
been damaged or removed, except the dollars, which were, of 
course, all gone. The thieves had, no doubt, surmised, what 
was actually the case, that the papers were of more impor- 
tance to Mr. Fortune than the money, and hoped, by return- 
ing them, to avoid any further enquiry into the occurrence. 



CHAPTER VI. 

A TRIP INLAND. — CONTINUED. 

Ascend Toong-toong-ting-shan — The View — The Great Lake of China— A Beautiful 
Canal — Villages — Eeturn to Soo-chow — Grand Canal — A Customs' Barrier — A Chi- 
nese Fort — Ping-bong — Chinza— Nan-zing — Effect of Drought on Eice Fields — Our 
Examination by Mandarins — Preparations for the Rebels — Iloo-chow — Pretty Girls 
— Are compelled to return to Shanghae — Bridge at Yang-kow-shin — Kahing — Troojis 
— Mandarin's House in Lake — Arrive again at Shanghae — Charity in China. 

At daybreak on the morning of the 13th, we ascended the 
Toong-toong-tmg-shan, a hill about five hundred feet high, 
which separated the inlet, in which we had passed the night, 
from the body of the lake. The shape of the hill was irregu- 
lar, being cut up by deep gullies, around the sides of which 
wound the long flight of stone steps conductmg to the sum- 
mit. On the top is a Boodhist monastery, of thirty or forty 
monks, and we passed several minor estabUshments on the 
M'ay up. These religious houses, as well as the pathway, were 
well sheltered by trees. At the highest point, above the large 
monastery, is a small joss-house, under the shade of which we 
partook of breakfast. An old woman officiated as genius loci^ 
and was terribly frightened by our oifering her an empty 
claret bottle, fearing that it might be in some way connected 
with a spell, or the Evil Eye. After breakfast, we remained 
on the summit for a quarter of an hour, enjoying the view. 
Behind us was the inlet from which we had come, and the 
low country stretching toward Shanghae; in front another 
inlet, separated from the first by the hill on which we were ; 
and beyond it another hill, precisely the counterpart of the 
first, the Si-toong-ting-shan, the summit of which was also oc- 
cupied by a monastic establishment. On our right stretched 
the great lake for a hundred miles, bounded by the range of 



62 China. 

hills behind us, round which we had come on the previous 

day. 

The sun soon became too hot to make a longer exposure to 
its rays desirable, and we descended to our boat, stopping 
only to visit the large monastery. This establishment was 
composed of several quadrangles, surrounded by the cells ot 
monks. At the extremity of the furthest was the temple, in 
no way remarkable. All the buildings were of stone, and the 
whole was surrounded by a high stone wall, and shaded by 
magnificent trees. We saw only a few monks. They were 
dressed in loose lilac gowns, and had the hair of the head 
entirely shaven. Many of these Boodhist foundations in 
China are very rich, and as the monastic vows can be can- 
celled at will, they afford a sort of asylum to indigent persons 
who seek a retirement from the troubles of the world in the 
quiet of the cloister, from which they can emerge at will 
should better times smile upon them. 

On returning to the boat, and consulting with the mate, 
we found that the lowness of the water in the Ty-hao would 
prevent our crossing it, which was the nearest route to Hoo- 
chow, a city which we desired to visit. We, therefore, re- 
luctantly determined to strike into another canal, and proceed 
to Hoo-chow by a much more round-about route. 

The Ty-hao, though the largest lake in China, is never more 
than six or eight feet deep, and when we visited it was in 
most places not more than two or three feet deep, while some 
parts were quite dry. This was owing to the two or three 
months' drought, which it was feared would cause a famme in 
all the northern part of China, by lowering the great canals, 
and drying up their smaller and shallower branches, on which 
the country depended for irrigation. In the south of China, 
on the other hand, they had had that year just the opposite 
trouble, the country being flooded, villages entirely covered 
by water, and the crops destroyed in consequence of violent 
and long-continued rains. 

The canal which we now entered was a fine one, and appa» 
rently well kept up. It was frequently spanned by tall stone 
bridges, which were in good condition, and some of them 



A Trip Inland. 63 

actually undergoing repair. The bridges, like those which I 
had before seen in similar positions, were built with one semi* 
circular arch, the upper line of the bridge rising to a point. 
Ko mortar was used in their construction, the structure being 
held together entirely by the accurate cutting of the stones, 
and the scientific perfection of the arch. I should have 
mentioned that the material of all is grey granite. 

The country through which we were passing was prettiei 
than on any previous day. The hills on the Ty-hao, and those 
between that lake and Soo-chow, were all visible, and the 
fields on each side of the canal were relieved of their monotony 
by the frequent occm-rence of private cemeteries and monas- 
teries. We passed through several very large villages, one of 
which extended alonc^ the canal for more than three miles. 
When the canal passed through a village, its sides were gen- 
erally lined with flights of stone steps, ascending to the level 
of the street, or paved levee. In villages, a large part of the 
canal was frequently occupied by the buffaloes, who, to get 
relief from the great heat, stand in the canal v/hen it is shallow 
enough, with only their eyes and nose above water. We no- 
ticed that many of the water-wheels which we passed during 
this day were turned by very pretty girls, with much clearer 
complexions than those of the women on the coast. The 
only drawback to their appearance was that, like all women 
in the north of China, they had little feet, but even to this 
one soon gets accustomed, and I am not sure that, after all, it 
is not a much less unnatural distortion, than the habit which 
occidental ladies have of compressing the waist. 

By evening we again arrived at Soo-chow, to which city 
we had been compelled to return in order to proceed to Hoo- 
chow via the Grand Canal. We had again to pass through 
the crowded ranks of junks, which I have described as moored 
about the city, and it was consequently late before we entered 
the Grand Canal. By nine o'clock we had got clear of the 
suburbs, and of other boats, and again anchored for the 
night. 

The next morning we had a better view of the great high- 
way to the capital of China — for centuries the largest artificial 



64 China. 

water-course in the world. It is here more than one hundred 
and fifty feet in width, but is in some parts of its course nar- 
rower, and in some even broader. It is crossed by bridges, 
similar to those which I had seen on the other canals, but of 
course longer, and proportionately larger. The embankments 
on each side were faced with stone, and the tow-path paved 
with square stone blocks. We continued up the Grand Canal 
all day. It led us through several lakes, like the Ty-hao, 
broad but shallow. At a town called Ping-bong we were 
stopped at a customs' barrier, but as soon as the officials in 
charge learned who we were, they made no objection to our 
passing, merely requesting that we would kindly give them 
some books—a reasonable demand, which my friend hastened 
to comply with, by presenting to them some of the Chinese 
publications of a London society. The subjects of these 
works come under the head of useful knowledge, and it is 
always customary for foreigners to carry such books on their 
inland excursions, as they make the best presents to native 
officials who are disposed to be civil. 

The city of Ping-bong is situated in a lake, and all the 
streets are traversed by canals. The town itself is not walled, 
but the approaches by the canal, in both directions, are pro- 
tected by small forts and batteries. In the latter, the guns 
are of assorted sizes, from two feet to six in length, some 
mounted, and some lying on the ground. Even in the largest 
Chinese cannon, the bore is seldom more than four inches in 
diameter ; since, as the celestials buy their guns by weight, it 
is, of course, the interest of the English manufacturer, to 
make the calibre as small as possible. 

The appearance of Ping-bong, as it were, floating upon the 
water, is really very pretty, and some wooded islands which 
surround it, increase the picturesque effect. Many of the 
bridges which cross the Grand Canal, in its passage through 
the town, are forty feet high, and the quays are strongly built 
of stone, descending by stone steps to the water. The city, 
like all others in the low plain of IsTorthern China, is entirely 
built on piles. Passing Ping-bong, we proceeded a few miles 
further along the canal, and again anchored for the night. 



A Trip Inland. 65 

The thermometer had stood at 96° durmg the heat of the 
day. 

Before I awoke next morning, we had got imder weigh, 
and passed Chinza, a considerable to^\^l. About ten o'clock 
we went by ISTanzing, a large place, and the entrepot of all the 
silk which goes to Shanghae, but in appearance similar to the 
cities already described. We were now entering the silk 
country, and the plantations of mulberry trees added much to 
the livehness of the view, The a:reat drouo^ht was here tellino 
severely on the rice, the fields being hard enough to walk on, 
whereas, they ought, when properly irrigated, to be of the 
consistence of mud. About noon, we came in sight of the 
mountains which surround Hoo-chow, and about four o'clock 
we were stopped at a customs' barrier, and the mandarin sent 
on board to summon us ashore for examination. Now, it is 
always the best j^lan, and saves a great deal of trouble, to 
treat oriental officials with a high hand, and above all, not to 
allow them to begin intercourse with an assumption of supe- 
riority. It thus became an object with us to cause our dignity 
to shine upon this little great man, and we answered his mes- 
senger that we had prepared and made ready our miserable 
boat, in the hopes that it would be illumined by his presence. 
The internuncio soon came back to say, that the press of busi- 
ness would prevent the officials from having the honour of 
coming on board our magnificent vessel, but that they again 
ventured to beg us to visit them in the wretched hut where 
they laboured. This style of communication was kept up for 
some time, ending in our refusing to go on shore on the ground 
of illness — a plea which was only diplomatically true. As it 
became now quite plain, that, come what would, we were not 
to be enticed ashore, and as these subordinate officials did not 
dare to let us pass the barrier without examination ; and, on 
the other hand, would not, unsupported, venture on the ex- 
treme measure of sending us back to the coast, they determined 
to visit the boat, and we accordingly drew ashore to enable 
them to come on board. My friend and I took our seats at 
the extreme end of the cabin, trying to look as dignified as 
possible to make up for the simplicity of our attire, which 



66 China. 

consisted only of night-shirts and loose drawers. The Chinese 
officers did not make us wait long. Only two came on board, 
both young men, and simply dressed. My friend, who spoke 
Chinese, and was well acquainted with their customs, received 
them with a ceremonious politeness, which set me off into the 
most indecent fits of laughter. As the Chinamen entered, a 
sweet smile, expressive of a sort of holy joy, illumined their 
muddy countenances ; changing, as they caught sight of my 
friend, into a full-blown grm, intended to intimate that they 
had at length attained to the fruition of perfect bliss, and that 
all their highest earthly hopes were fulfilled since they were 
honoured by being permitted to enter into the immediate 
presence of a chief man of that great nation by whom the 
exti^mities of the earth were governed. All this was written 
on their faces, and spoken in their opening address. My 
friend also succeeded in moulding his countenance into ex- 
pressing similar pleasurable emotions, with a skill, which was, 
to me, a subject of admiring mirth. Both parties chin-chined^ 
or saluted, in the Chinese fashion, by clasping both fists, pla- 
cing them in juxtaposition on the breast, and giving them a 
prolonged tremulous shake, at the same time uttering the 
words tsin-tsin (hail ! hail !) several times. After the first 
elaborate greetings were over, it was some time before we 
could so far overcome the modest scruples of our visitors as to 
induce them to sit down. They remained only a few minutes, 
which they occupied by questioning my friend about our des- 
tination, and then took an elaborate leave, after having ac- 
cepted the present of a few books. 

We found out, afterwards, that these extra precautions (it 
not being usual to stop foreigners at this barrier) were owing 
to the vicinity of the rebels, who were, at the time, only 36 
mUes off, but were prevented from advancing by the lowness 
of the canals. Hoo-chow was, however, strongly fortified, in 
preparation for their arrival. The walls were in thorough 
repair, the outworks on the canal had been put in order, all 
the cannon were mounted, and we saw a great many of the 
forty thousand soldiers who had been collected and quartered 
in and about the city. The gate of the city was more rigidly 



A Trip Inland. 67 

guarded than even the barrier, and we found it impossible to 
enter on any pretext. 

In size and exterior appearance, Hoo-chow very much re- 
sembles Soo-chow. It is surrounded on three sides by hills, 
the highest of which are about 1,000 feet high, and are 
covered with monasteries, one of which is well worth seeing. 
We could not, however, ascend these hills, as the canal leading 
to their foot was too low to give our boat a passage. We 
passed through the suburbs of Hoo-chow, which, though not 
so extensive as those of Soo-chow, seemed to have a larger 
number of houses inhabited by the wealthier classes, whose 
dwellings can always be distinguished by the high wall that 
surrounds them. This city is in the heart of the silk country, 
and we admired very much the gay costume of the pretty 
Hoo-chow girls, who are in the habit of wearing bright scarlet 
silk trowsers, whereas, lower down the country, the women 
generally wear no colour but black. We put these young 
ladies very much out of countenance by eyeing them through 
lorgnettes. 

Our appearance caused great excitement here, as in the 
other towns, and our boat was followed, as before, by shout- 
ing crowds of ragamuffins : but, on this occasion, in addition 
to calling us names, they paid us the more tangible attention 
of aiming at us mud and stones, from which we had to take 
refuge in our cabin. 

By eight o'clock, we had got clear of the outskirts of the 
city, and anchored for the night. This was the hottest day 
of the whole trip, the thermometer in the shade, touching 
100° at noon, and remaining above 90" all night. We took a 
swim in the canal before turning in, but passed an unpleasant 
night, being tormented by mosquitoes, and by that unpleasant 
eruption called prickly heat, which attacks nearly all Euro- 
peans, in China and India. 

From Hoo-chow we had intended to go on to the provincial 
city of Hang-chow, where are some remarkable temples, and 
colossal stone representations of Boodh, forty feet high. The 
lowness of the canals, however, forced us to give up this 



68 China. 

plan, and on the morning of the i6th, we turned our faces 
again toward Shanghae. 

For the first day, we returned on the same branch of the 
Grand Canal, by which we had come to Hoo-chow. We 
again passed through Nanzing, Chinza, and other towns and 
villages " too numerous to mention," The shopmen were still 
sitting at the open front of their stores, exjDOsing theu' sleek, 
broad bellies to the admiring gaze of passers-by ; the buffaloes 
were still cooling themselves in the canal ; the ceaseless activ- 
ity which is the most characteristic peculiarity of a Chinese 
community, still went on ; and our appearance again excited 
the curiosity, and called forth the vocal energies of the mob. 

By evening, we had passed Ping-bong, near which town we 
stopped for the night. 

The next morning, when I awoke, I found that we had 
come into another canal, and were opposite the town of Yang- 
kow-shin, which boasts the finest bridge that I saw in China. 
The material is granite, the upper lines being straight, and 
making a very obtuse angle where they meet, at the middle 
point of the bridge. There are three arches, resting on two 
j)iers, with the abutments. The upper curve of all three is a 
semicircle, sHghtly returning below to an oval. The centre 
arch has about forty feet span, and the two side arches over 
thirty. The breadth of the bridge is at least twenty feet, and 
its whole length about 175. 

During the day, we passed the city of Ka-hing, in the moat 
of which we found many large junks anchored. One of the 
largest had, over one end of its house on deck, an extended 
umbrella, the official signal of the Mandarin, who was on 
board, and who, we learned, was in command of a body of 
troops, with which the other boats were loaded. They were 
going up the canal, in the direction of Hoo-chow. Ka-hing is 
a city of about a million of inhabitants, and has large suburbs, 
which we were nearly three hours in passing through. There 
are several large lakes, which come quite up to the walls, 
though they do not, as in the case of Ping-bong, entirely sur- 
round the city. In one of these lakes, we saw the country- 
seat of a mandarin, a large building on a low island, nicely 



A Trip Inland. 6g 

shaded by trees. The lake, in front of the house, was pre- 
served for fish, many acres being inclosed in a line of sub- 
aquatic hedges, the tojDs of which just appeared above the 
surface of the water. This practice is very common in China, 
and we saw such preserves in several other lakes, though 
I have not before mentioned them. 

The fortifications of Ka-hing had evidently been prepared to 
resist an expected attack of the rebels, and we saw large 
numbers of soldiers, as at Hoo-chow. I do not know whether 
these warriors meant fight or not, but they certainly did not 
look it. 

For the next twenty-four hours, we passed through the 
prettiest country that I saw on the trip. The trees were not 
confined to the vicinity of villages, or cemeteries ; the canal 
passed frequently through small lakes ; and the merits of the 
locality seemed to have been appreciated by wealthy Chinese, 
whose country-houses were visible on all sides. The water- 
wall and bridges, too, were in good repair, and the latter were 
frequently covered by creeping vines. 

Towards the afternoon of the next day, the country lost its 
interest, and I saw nothing else worthy of detail here. We 
arrived at Shanghae on the evening of the nineteenth of July, 
having been absent just eight days. 

Though we had not accomplished as much as we wished or 
intended, and had at no time been more than 1 20 miles from 
Shanghae, and though we had seen and learned less than we 
could have done in any other country in the same time ; yet I 
could not but feel it a great advantage to be able to see what 
I did. Although we only, as it were, entered and passed the 
boundary of the country, yet very few, except the mission- 
aries, have done more ; and this feeling of seeing something 
out of the common track, is what gives the greatest mterest 
to our travels. 

After my return to Shanghae I saw more of the American 
missionaries than when I was first there. In company with 
one of these gentlemen I visited an establishment in the Chi- 
nese town known as the "Institute of Universal Benevolence." 
It consists of a large room furnished with small tables, at each 



yo China. 

of which is seated an employe^ either a physician, lawyer, or 
visitor of the poor. Here any poor man may receive gratui- 
tous medical advice, legal assistance, or relief in the shape of 
food, clothing, and money. This institution has been in exist- 
ence at least a hundred years — I believe more, but have for- 
gotten. It was founded by private Chinese benevolence, and 
has, since its foundation, received so many bequests that it is 
now quite wealthy. The system was very complete, and the 
amount of good effected very large, but its operations were 
entirely suspended and deranged by the rebellion in the city, 
and when I visited it, it had not again returned to perfect and 
harmonious action. The number of applicants who crowded 
the hall was however considerable. It is very pleasant to see 
such evidences of charity in a heathen country, and to know 
that similar institutions exist in many other cities of the em- 
pire. Benevolence is one of the most attractive features of 
the Chinese character, and one that our preconceived ideas 
find it hard to reconcile with infanticide and other cruelties 
which disgrace this and all heathen nations. I was told that 
during a recent famine m the north of China, a single mer- 
chant offered to board and lodge, at his own expense, all 
children from the city of Shanghae who should be entrusted 
to his care. Several thousands profited by the benevolent 
offer, and were comfortably sheltered and furnished with food 
for several months, while men and women were dying, hun- 
dreds in a day, in the streets of the city, of starvation and 
exposure. 

In connection with this it should be remembered that the 
Chinese and other oriental governments do nothing for the 
relief of paupers — a state of things that always calls out pri- 
vate sympathy to its fullest extent ; but still the systematic 
beneficence of the Chinese, shown in the foundation of such 
institutions as I have described, and in the custom which 
allows no beggar to leave a house without an alms, stands in 
bright contrast with the conduct of all other pagan peoples. 
In India, for example, though there are asylums for all brute 
animals, even fleas and lice, established by the Boodhists and 
Brahmuns, I did not hear of a single foundation for the benefit 



A Trip Inland. 71 

of the human species, nor of one such act of munificent charity 
as that of the Chinese merchant at Shanghae. To this remark 
I must except the case of the Parsee baronet, Sir Jamsetjee 
Jeejeebhoy,the princely liberaUty of whose charities has been 
the theme of admiration throughout the world. It should be 
remembered, however, that Sir Jamsetjee had the advantage 
of li\dng at Bombay, among a numerous Christian commu- 
nity, and that he is alone among natives in the distinguished 
benevolence of his course. In ancient Greece and Rome we 
hear of no charitable establishments, and I believe that no- 
where but in China have they arisen except from the teaching 
of the Christian rehgion. Should any one think hardly of the 
Chinese character, let him remember that they have sponta- 
neously acted upon those principles of benevolence which 
elsewhere required the teaching of an incarnate God to give 
them practical force, and that in a heathen land one of the 
highest virtues of the Christian is practised without the Chris- 
tian's hope of an immortal reward. My companion, being of 
Calvinistic views, feelingly regretted that so many good works 
should not redound to the advantage of the doers, since, being 
done before justification, and not having as a motive the love 
of Christ, they would, in the language of the Articles, " par- 
take of the nature of sin." I could only hope that stich good 
intentions might be apj^reciated by Him in whose eyes the 
alms of the unconverted Cornelius were pleasing, and that 
some benighted Chinaman might hereafter find that in doing 
good, without hope of reward, to one of the least of his breth- 
ren, he had done it unawares to that great Elder Brother who 
is able and willhig to reward beyond either our desires or de- 
serts. 



CHAPTER VII. 

SOUTHERN CHINA. 

Leave Shanghae— The Peninsular and Oriental Company— Hong Kong— Foreign Settle- 
ment of Canton — The Chinese Suburbs — Ceremonies at Ming-qua's House — Making 
Tea— Opium Smoking— The Opium Trade— Temple of a Hundred Gods— Beggars 
Dying of Starvation — Interior of a House — A Chinese Eestanrant — Chop-sticks — 
Eat Grills and Dog Stew— Public Opium Shops— The Boat Population of Canton- 
Indifference to Life— Lepers— How-qua's Garden— Unique Method of Hatching Eggs 
— Monasteries of Honan — ^Boodhist Services — Sacred Hogs — Gambling — Macao — A 
Protective Policy — The Portuguese — Effect of the War on the Commercial Impor- 
tance of Canton. 

On the last day of July I left Shanghae for Hong Kong, on 
board the steamer Erin, belonging to the Peninsular and Ori- 
ental Steam N"avigation Company, or, as they are called for 
short, the P. and O. Company. This is the largest steamship 
company in the world, owning, two years ago, thirty-eight 
steamers, aggregating fifty thousand tons, English measure- 
ment. They had, at the time of which I speak, the undisputed 
monopoly of steam conveyance in the Eastern seas ; and even 
now their only rival is the Australian Steamship Company, to 
which they lend boats and officers, so that it must be, in fact, 
either the same parties under a different name, or some good 
friends of theirs. 

The Peninsular and Oriental Company take advantage of 
their monopoly to charge an enormous price for the passage 
to Hong Kong. The distance is only about 800 miles, and 
the fare I120, which, when I paid my passage, was equal to 
£45 sterling. 

The " P. and O." boats are all admirably fitted up, and the 
whole service is, I suppose, by far the finest j^rivate service in 
the world. The table is as good as circumstances will allow, 
and beer, wines and liquors are furnished without extra charge. 

Our course was close to the shore, and we were alwavs in 



Southern China. 



73 



sight of, and often close to, the steep and barren hills which 
form the coast of the Flowery Kingdom ; at least, after pass- 
ing the low alluvial plain of Northern China, which is scarcely- 
raised above the level of the ocean. 

On the fourth day we arrived at Hong Kong, which is situ- 
ated on the sides of a high barren hill, an island in one of the 
many inlets which receive the waters of the Canton river. 
The whole island is in the possession of the English, and is a 
colony by the name of Victoria. The residences of Europeans 
are built on the side of the hiU, and are similar in form to the 
hongs at Shanghae, except that they are not uniformly so 
large, and that they are rarely enclosed in comj^ounds. The 
lower part of the hiU, next the water, is occupied partly by 
the houses and offices of foreigners, and partly by the native 
town which has grown up since the possession of the island by 
the English. 

I remained only a few hours in Hong Kong, and took, in 
the evening, the mail-boat to Canton. The distance up the 
river is about forty miles, and we arrived at Canton about 
eight o'clock next morning. The branch of the river through 
which we went, winds among high and steep hills, by which 
the city of Canton itself is entu-ely surrounded. The foreign 
factories were situated outside the walls of Canton and further 
down the river. They consisted of a compact block of stone 
houses, four stories high, and each about sixty feet front. 
Between them and the river was a garden, about a quarter 
of a mile long and 200 feet broad. This formed the only 
walk of the foreign residents, and was consequently very pret- 
tily laid out. At the upper end of the garden was a building 
containing a subscription library, and two club billiard rooms. 
The lower part of this structure was arched and unenclosed, 
and served as a shelter to the light " out-riggers" in which the 
younger members of the Canton Euroj)ean community took 
aquatic exercise. 

The whole space occupied by the foreign community at 
Canton, was not more than eight or ten acres, and was, there- 
fore, very closely built up. The buildings had no enclosures 
surrounding them as at Shanghae, but were all crammed into 

4 



74 China. 

a compact block, consisting of five or six rows of houses, one 
behind the other; each row being divided from the other 
by only a narrow space, and the whole being connected by 
tunnelled passages running completely through. It may be 
easily 'imagined that Canton was not so pleasant a residence 
as Shanghae. In fact, the feeling to a stranger was that of a 
prison. 

No strangers are allowed within the walls of Canton, al- 
though a free ingress is secured by treaty. The suburbs are, 
however, very extensive, and through these I made an excur- 
sion with Mr. Gray, H. B. M. Chaplain at Canton. 

Almost all the wealthy Chinese reside in the suburbs, and 
we were kindly invited to enter the house of Mingqua, a Chi- 
nese merchant of eminence. Like aU private residences, this 
was surrounded by a wall, shutting off all connection from 
the street. It contained several courts surrounded by build- 
ings. The space between the first and second courts was 
covered in, and contained a large private temple, similar in its 
arrangement to all public joss-houses which I saw. During 
our visit we had the opportunity of witnessing a seiwice per- 
formed by some Boodhist monks, to celebrate the recovery 
from sickness of Mingqua's mother. The ceremony consisted 
wholly of chaunting and singing to the accompaniment of sev- 
eral discordant instruments ; among them a shrill fife, which 
" carried the air." The ladies of the establishment were pre- 
sent, but in the back-ground, and we enjoyed an opportunity 
rarely afforded, of seeing Chinese women of the higher classes. 
They were four or five in number, and dressed in black or 
blue satin. The face and neck were both painted with admira- 
ble art, and the hair drawn back from the forehead into a 
large knot behind, and retained by gold ornaments. They 
had all small feet, which, in this part of China, is a mark of 
high rank ; the lower classes allowing their feet to attain the 
size of nature, which is, after all, very small and pretty. 

When the ceremony was concluded, we adjourned with the 
males of the family to a small room where tea was served. 
The floor of this room, as of all rooms in these houses, was of 
marble blocks; the furniture consisted of little tables with 



Southern China. 75 

marble tops, and marble-seated chairs, placed around tbe sides 
of the room, and the walls were entirely bare. At one end 
of the room was a divan, covered with matting, and furnished 
with two small hard Chinese pillows and a little lamp. The di- 
van was for opium smoking, and the arrangement was precisely 
that of the similar divans which exist in every shop in Canton. 
After partaking of some delightful tea, I was asked to try a 
pipe of oj^ium, an offer which I was glad to accept, as I wished 
to make a trial of the fascinations of this drug. I shall first 
describe the Chinese manner of making tea, and then the 
opium smoking. 

The tea is put into a shallow cup, and boiling water poured 
on. The saucer, which is not nearly so broad as ours, but 
deeper, is then put as a cover over the cup, and the tea is 
allowed to " draw." When the decoction is strong enough, 
the cup is raised to the lips and the saucer slightly tilted on 
the edge, so as to retain the tea leaves, but allow the pure tea 
to pass into the mouth. Sometimes the tea is made in a pot, 
but what I have described is considered the best plan. In no 
case, however, is the pot, or cup, ever filled the second time 
with water, and a Chinese would shudder at the idea of letting 
the tea " simmer" on the fire. 

Opium is not generally indulged in by a man alone. The 
effect of the drug is to excite the imagination and spirits to 
such an extent, that a companion is a sort of necessity to per- 
fect enjoyment. The two companions who propose to indulge 
in a pipe, recline on a divan, supporting the body on the 
elbow, and resting the legs on a stool. Between them is a 
lamp, and two little pots of a decoction of opium, as thick as 
molasses. The opium pipe is generally made of some reed, 
and is a hollow tube about eighteen inches long with a bore 
of an inch or more. At one end is an ivory mouth-piece, and 
the other end is closed. Two thii-ds of the way down it, is a 
hole in which fits a hollow earthen bulb, with an interior ca- 
pacity of about a cubic inch. There is a small aperture 
of the size of a pin's head in the top of this bulb. The 
opium smoker, thus rechning, and turned toward his compan- 
ion, dips a steel instrument, like a square knitting-needle in 



^6 China. 

the solution of opium. A drop adheres to the needle, and is 
then held in the flame of the lamp, where it effervesces and 
shrinks into a pasty coating. The needle is then again dipped 
into the opium, and the process repeated until a small pill is 
formed on the end of the needle, which is then passed through 
the httle hole on the earthen bulb, and withdrawn with a twist, 
leaviug the pill on the surface of the bulb, over the aperture. 
The pill is now held in the flame of the lamp, the smoker at the 
same time inhaling the fumes, which pass into the bulb, and 
thence into the body of the pipe and the lungs. Each opium 
pill will furnish three or four full inspirations, and the smoke is 
retained in the lungs as long as possible. The preparation of 
the pill takes three or four minutes, and the smoking not more 
than one or two. It is said that an habitual smoker finds the 
quantity of opium necessary to intoxicate him, continually 
increasing up to a certain point ; after which the necessary 
amount becomes less and less until, in some cases, where the 
system has become very much debilitated by continual indul- 
gence in this habit, a single pipe will produce full intoxication. 
A European, too, is much less easily affected than a Chinese. 
I smoked on this occasion, five or six pipes, which did not 
produce the least mental effect ; they entirely removed, how- 
ever, the great fatigue and exhaustion which I had felt firom 
my long walk in the sun. From what I heard in China, I 
should imagine that opium smoking does not produce those 
universally deleterious effects which are commonly attributed 
to it here and in Europe. Like alcoholic beverages, or any 
other stimulant, it is very susceptible of abuse ; but I should 
fancy that the victims of over-indulgence in this drug, are not 
relatively more numerous than drunkards are among those 
nations where habitual stimulants are of an alcoholic nature. 
The opium is all smuggled into the country by foreigners, 
who keep three or four opium store-ships at a place called 
Cum-Sing-Moon, on a branch of the Canton River, which 
leads to Macao. When the drug has been once introduced 
into the Empire, it is conveyed throughout the country with 
the knowledge of the officials, to whom it pays black mail at 
at every customs' station. 



Southern China. 



77 



A class of very fast boats is employed to run the drug from 
the store ships to Cantou. These boats are numerously 
manned by desperate fellows to whom high pay is given. 
Their great speed generally enables them to avoid the impe- 
rial revenue boats and the pirates, but they are sometimes 
overtaken and fearful fights and loss of Hfe are the result. 

We passed about half an hour at Mingqua's after the con- 
clusion of the rehgious ceremony. My friend conversing in 
Chinese with our entertainer. In the course of conversation, 
he happened to remark that he was a Master of Arts, and I, 
a Bachelor, upon hearing which the whole company arose, 
and made us a respectful salutation. It is well known that 
the Chinese have similar academic degrees, which are con- 
ferred on all who can pass the government examinations. 
The graduates form the body from which mandarins are 
chosen, and are looked upon in China with great respect. 

On our way back to the factories we stopped at a temple 
which contained, in a vast chamber, over a hundred idols, 
about four feet high, made of stone and gilded. They were 
arranged on a shelf along the wall, and no two of them had 
the same dress or expression. 

After leaving the temple of a hundred gods we passed 
through what is known as the beggars' square, where those 
mendicants who become too old or infirm to exercise their 
profession, are taken by their friends to die. They are 
generally laid on a piece of matting, and protected from the 
sun by a temporary shelter. They perish of starvation, if not 
by disease. There were three or four wretched beings there, 
when I visited the square. They seemed more than half 
dead, and one man, to whom I threw a quarter of a dollar, 
did not pick it up. 

We stopped, before reaching home, at another private 
house, the general arrangement of which was like that of 
Mingqua's establishment. The family, however, had, in this 
case, gone into the country, and we were shewn all over the 
house by the children's tutor, a skinny old graduate, with 
immense horn spectacles. The rooms were all small, bare and 
cheerless; the only exceptions being the women's quarters. 



y8 China. 

which were smaller, barer, and more cheerless. One or two 
apartments had been arranged as a kind of green-house, with 
artificial rocks, stunted trees, growing bushes trained to form 
bird-cages for canaiies, and others of those distortions of 
nature in which the Chinese take so much pleasure. 

I made one or two other excursions among the suburbs of 
Canton, with Mr. Gray, who was well acquainted with all that 
there was to see, and very kindly acted as pilot. 

On one occasion, we went into a Chinese eating-house, a 
dirty, noisy hole, but we were very hungry and thirsty, and 
ventured on a pomegranate and some tea. The establish- 
ment was crowded with guests, who removed their shirts for 
greater coolness, as the Chinese do in the house. We found 
the smell of the Chinese dishes, which are cooked with rancid 
oil, by no means appetising. Of course this afforded a splendid 
opportunity for witnessing the practical management of chop- 
sticks. The method of using these puzzling substitutes for 
knives and forks is, after all, very simple, but can hardly be 
described in writing. Both sticks are held by one hand, and 
the dextrous Chinaman rapidly- picks out, by their means, 
the choice morsels of meat which are brought to him already 
cut up, and mostly made into ragouts. When dining with a 
friend, if disposed to be very polite, he will, with his own' 
sticks, extract a choice morsel from the dish, and place it in 
the mouth of his companion. 

Besides this large chow-chow (eating) house, we went into 
several smaller estabhshments, where the usual bill of fare 
was increased by the addition of rat-grills and dog-stew. In 
the back division of one of these latter restaurants I saw a 
dozen or two puppies in little coops, being fattened for the 
table. 

I visited several public opium shops. They were mostly 
dirty rooms up-stairs, very dirty, and the resort of the 
lower classes only. The higher classes prefer to enjoy this 
luxury, in a room set apart for the purpose, in their own 
houses. The atmosphere of these places was foul and heavy 
with opium smoke. It is a strange peculiarity of opium that 
its taste and smell are disagreeable to all, and the smell of its 



Southern China. 79 

smoke particularly offensive, and yet the taste of the latter is 
delightful, and no harsher to the delicate air-passages of the 
lungs than the purest air. These public opium-shops have a 
room up-stairs, whither their customers are conveyed when 
dead-drunk, and left to lie, closely packed on the floor, until 
they have slept ofi" the effects of the drug. 

I went one day with Mr. Gray to visit the Gardens of How- 
qua, situated a few miles up the river. "We went in a large 
boat. The river off Canton is completely filled with craft of 
all sorts, leaving only a very narrow passage. In this channel 
the tide very often runs with prodigious force, and, as col- 
lisions often take place, it frequently happens that a small boat 
goes to pieces. I have several times seen such accidents, the 
boat breaking completely up, and the passengers floating in 
the water. Dozens of boats would at once put off from the 
shore, and pick up every stick of the boat, but it rarely hap- 
pened that they attempted to save life, until they had got all 
they could of the wreck. It is really incredible how little 
attention is paid in these countries to human life. I have seen 
several people drowned from such accidents as I have de- 
scribed above, and I have heard a shij)-captain say, that he 
had seen a boat row by a drowning man, within an oar's length, 
without stopping to render him assistance. 

Most persons know that there is an immense population 
living in boats, moored off the city of Canton. These boats 
are not often more than twenty feet long, and generally about 
six feet wide. They are entirely covered by a house, in which 
the whole family sleep and live, taking their meals on the 
little deck at the bow of the boat. At the stern of these, as 
of all Chinese boats, there is an idol, which is propitiated by 
burning joss-sticks. The Chinese boats which were used by 
foreigners for going off to the shipping, or down the river, 
were usually of larger size, and propelled by oars. A woman 
was generally the commander, and worked the large scull at 
the stern. It was in one of these latter boats that we went 
up the river to Howqua's Garden. On the way, we passed 
several flat, unsheltered scows, floating in the stream, and 
containing lepers. These miserable beings are, in this coun- 



8o China. 

try, compelled to live in this way, after their disease has made 
a certain progress. The skm assumes a tint, the colom- of an 
infant's flesh, instead of the putty colour, which is the natural 
complexion of a Chinaman. They hnger miserably on their 
boats for a few years, never being allowed to go ashore, and 
having a little food thrown to them, when they pass the craft 
on the river. Doubtless many of them die from exposure 
and the want of the necessaries of Hfe, as those I saw had no 
clothing, and their boats were quite unprotected by any 
cabin. 

Howqua's Gardens, as well as those of another merchant, 
which we saw, cover several acres, and are laid out with a 
good deal of taste, in the extravagant and artificial Chinese 
style. They do not, however, merit a more particular de- 
scription. 

On our return from the Gardens, we stopped at an egg- 
hatching estabhshment. This was a large, wooden, barn- 
shaped building, on the river's bank. The eggs are purchased 
out of the produce boats that come down the river, and are 
here artificially hatched. The process employed is singular, as 
using only the natural heat of the egg, and is as follows. 
Large baskets, each twice the size of an ordinary barrel, and 
thickly lined with hay to prevent the loss of heat, are filled 
with the eggs, and then carefully closed with a closely-fitting 
cover of twisted straw. The eggs are now left for three days ; 
after which, they are removed from the basket, and replaced 
in different order — those eggs which were before on the sur- 
face being now on the lowest tier. At the end of three days 
more, the position of the eggs is again altered, and so on, for 
fifteen days; after which time the eggs are taken out of the 
basket and placed on a shelf in another apartment, and 
covered with bran. In the course of a day or two, the 
chicken bursts its shell, and makes its way out of the bran ; 
being at once taken charge of by an attendant, who is always 
on the watch. The whole secret of this process is in the fact, 
that the animal heat of the whole mass of eggs being retained 
by the basket, which is formed of materials which do not con- 
duct caloric, is sufficient to support the animal life of any one 



Southern China. 8i 

particular egg, and to foster its development. This is the 
only egg-hatching process I ever heard of, which did not 
require artificial heat. I should think it might be practised 
in America, in summer. 

During my stay at Canton, I visited Honan, an island oppo- 
site the factories, belonging to a community of Boodhist 
monks, and covered by a large monastic establishment. There 
were several hundred monks in residence at the time of my 
visit. They occupied rooms around a court, containing two 
or three acres of ground, nicely sodded, and shaded by fine 
old trees. At the upper end of this court was a large temple, 
of the usual form ; and behind the temple, another court, pre- 
cisely like the first. Besides these two open quadrangles, 
there were several other smaller courts, generally paved, and 
without trees, around which were the residences of the abbot, 
and other fimctionaries. Beyond the buildings was the gar- 
den, covering five or six acres, where the monks were at work. 
At the further end of the garden was a little stone building, 
within which, ujDon shelves, were earthen urns containing the 
ashes of those priests who die at the monastery.- Outside the 
little building was a stone furnace to burn the body. I could 
not learn whether this practice of incremation was peculiar to 
this establishment, or prevailed at other conventual institu- 
tions. After seeing the garden, we were invited by the abbot 
into his private parlour, which was elegantly furnished. He 
entertained us with a cup of tea, and then ]3roposed our wit- 
nessing the afternoon service, which was about being per- 
formed. He accordingly returned to the temj^le, where about 
a hundred monks had assembled, all in their ordinary slate- 
coloured robes, excej)t two or three, who knelt in front, and 
acted as leaders. These latter were envelo^^ed in ample scarfs, 
of yellow satin. The service consisted principally in a 
monotonous nasal chaunt, alternating between the priests in 
the yellow scarfs, and the remaining monks, who stood around 
the wall. Occasionally they would walk in procession around 
the figure of Boodh, saluting it as they passed. The chaunting 
was accompanied by a fife and bell. The service lasted about 
twenty minutes. After the prayers, we visited the printing- 

4* 



82 China. 

press of tlie monastery, at which all the sacred books for the 
whole of China are printed. Moveable types are not nsed, 
but the characters are cut on blocks of box-wood. There 
were three or four presses, similar in form to our old-fashioned 
hand-presses. We also saw the asylum for animals, where 
several pigs and other beasts are supported at the expense of 
the monastery, to avert the wrath of Heaven from the Chinese 
generally, on account of their slaughter of these animals. 
This convent at Honan is one of the largest and wealthiest in 
China, and covers, with all its buildings and gardens, about 
twenty acres. 

Gambling forms one of the most promment amusements of 
the Chinese, and may be described as their ruling passion. 
Whenever they have a moment's leisure, they will sit down at 
some game, and government officials, as having nothing to do, 
seem to pass most of their time at this employment and opium 
smoking. There are gambling houses in every street in Can- 
ton, all perfectly open and public. The game is generally 
conducted fairly ; and the profits of the establishment do not 
come, as with us, from an advantage in the game, but from a 
discount on all sums won by players. 

During all the three weeks that I remained at Canton, the river 
was very high, on account of the long-continued rains, which 
had caused as much distress in the southern part of China as 
the drought had in the north. The gardens, in front of the 
foreign factories, were, for several days, overflowed, and 
people had to go from one hong to another in boats. 

The weather was very warm, all the time, which, added to 
the damp season, produced much fever and ague. They had 
an excellent plan to shelter the factories from the greatest heat 
of the sun. A bamboo scaffolding was built along the whole 
front of the hue of hongs. Upon this scaffold, and upon sup- 
ports resting on the roofs of the houses, there was a roof of 
thick matting, which acted like a gigantic umbrella, breaking 
the force of the sun's rays, and shading the windows of the 
hongs, and the street in front. Many of the merchants at 
Canton took their only exercise on the tops of the hongs in 
the evening. The roofs being flat, and covered with tiles. 



Southern China. 83 

made a very pleasant, though not very spacious walk. The 
young men commonly walked in the garden, which was con- • 
sidered somewhat too plebeian a resort for the "tai-pans," 
as the partners in commercial houses are called. 

I spent about two weeks, very pleasantly, at Macao, which 
was a sort of watering place of Canton. Most European 
merchants owned a house at Macao, as well as at Canton, 
going down to the former when they were exhausted by the 
hot air and impiisonment of the factories. Macao is a very 
pretty place, built on the side of a gently sloping hill, which 
bends around its bay in a semicircle. The hills in its vicinity 
are very picturesque, and, in the offing, are numerous lofty 
islands, which act as a great protection to shippmg in the bay. 
The harbour, which is a cove, running around behind the 
town, is, naturally, I believe, as good as that of Hong Kong, 
and had the Portuguese government been liberal enough, they 
might, during the English war with China, have attracted to 
Macao, and retained there, much of the trade which afterwards 
centred in the British colony of Hong Kong. But they 
would not alter their old system of high duties, which were 
imposed even on the importation of bullion, and would do 
nothing for the improvement of the harbour. When Hong 
Kong began to reap the advantages of an opposite poUcy, 
the Portuguese saw their error, and endeavoured to repau' 
the mistake by throwing Macao open as a free port, but they 
were too late, as trade had become firmly settled in the direc- 
tion of Hong Kong, and Macao can never, in all probability, 
be anything more than a pleasant residence for foreigners 
during their weeks of leisure. The native Portuguese popu- 
lation, who once inhabited the vast palace-hke residences that 
aboimd in Macao, and who once formed the most flourishing 
and wealthy colony of Portugal, are now miserably degraded 
by intermixture with Chinese. They speak a corrupt jargon, 
half Chinese, half their ancestral language ; and are most of 
them miserably poor and ignorant. They are an idle race, 
and generally hve on the remains of their property. Some 
famiUes manage to exist, in their native fashion, on as Uttle as 
|8o per annum. Degraded and brutalized as this Portuguese 



84 China. 

population is in all other respects, they still retain the Chris- 
"tian religion ; and the churches, in size and general appearance, 
remind one of those in Europe. Macao has good sea-bathing, 
veiy pretty walks, a good road for a drive, and a pleasant 
society, composed of such English and American families as 
live there constantly, (at least the ladies and children,) for the 
benefit of pure air ; and of a continuous stream of transitory 
visitors from Canton and Hong Kong. 

I left Hong Kong for Calcutta about the middle of Sep- 
tember. Soon after that time, the disturbances between the 
English and the Chinese began — among the earliest results of 
which was the destruction of the foreign factories, and the 
flight of the merchants to Hong Kong and Macao. This 
will, probably, be a heavy blow to the foreign trade of Can- 
n, ah-eady diminished by the rivalry of Shanghae and Foo- 
ow, ports which- are much more favourably situated for 
conmiunication with the tea and silk districts. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

TO CALCUTTA. 

The "Lancefield" — Entomology — Singapore — First Yiew of Orientals — The Parsees— 
Malays — Garrhees — Proas — Black "Water — Torture — Crew of a Ship in the Indian 
Sea— Jolly Tars — An Indian "Watering-place — The Hoogly — Bores — First View of 
Natives — Hubble-bubble— Fattening Shell-fish for Market. 

The steamer in "which I made the passage from China to 
India was called the "Lancefield," and formed, with the 
" Fiery Cross," a sister ship, a monthly connection between 
Calcutta and Hong Kong. Both these boats belonged to an 
eminent English firm, and their great employment was carry- 
ing opium to China, for which purpose they had entirely sup- 
planted the opium sailing clippers, formerly so numerous in 
the Eastern waters. They had, at that time, and, I suppose, 
have still, almost a monopoly of this most lucrative traffic. 
Their cargoes of opium were principally on account of the 
owners. The "Lancefield" and "Fiery Cross" were iron 
ships, of the best clipper models, fitted with screws, and most 
of the wood work was of teak. The cabin accommodations 
were exceedingly comfortable, the only drawback being the 
great quantities of centipedes and cock-roaches, which infest 
all ships in the India trade, but especially those which carry 
opium. These centipedes are insects, from three to seven 
inches in leng'th, and shaped a little like the earwig. Their 
sting is very poisonous, and sometimes causes the loss of a 
limb — always fever and pain. The cock-roaches look much 
like the ordinary animal of that name, but are from an inch 
and a half to three inches long, and have the power of flying. 
Besides these specimens of the entomological kingdom, to 
which I had got somewhat accustomed in China, we had, on 
the " Lancefield," some remarkably fine varieties of monster 



86 India. 

spiders. One of the hardest things for ah Occidental to en- 
dure in the East, is the superabundance of animal life, par- 
ticularly in the lower grades ; and it was a long time before I 
•got used to seeing two or three-inch cock-roaches walking 
calmly across the table, during dinner, as they do frequently, 
both in China and India. The annoyance of these beasts on 
the " Lancefield," was, however, intolerable. If I came down 
into the cabin, during the evening, it was quite impossible to 
go from the companion-way to my state-room, without crush- 
ing several cock-roaches under foot, and they flew in my face, 
caught in my hair, and walked up my trowsers during supper, 
until I was fairly disgusted, I only tried one night to sleep 
in the cabin. On that occasion, I awoke about midnight, and 
found a cock-roach on my face, several others about the bed, 
one or two on the wall, and an immense spider on my pillow. 
I jumped out of my bunk, dressed myself, and slept that 
night, and the rest of the passage, on deck. I found the deck 
cooler than below, and not a much harder bed than the mat- 
trasses of bamboo chips which are mostly used in China. The 
only trouble was the rain, of which we had more or less the 
whole passage. 

We arrived at Singapore, after a week's passage, on the 5th 
of October, and remained there twenty-four hours to coal. 

Singapore is built on an island, the general surface of which 
is .almost perfectly level, but a little way behind the town the 
ground rises in hillocks, on the tops of which the merchants 
have built their country houses or bungalows. The sloping 
grounds around the bungalows are frequently covered with 
nutmeg trees. 

Singapore consists of three divisions. The first has the 
greatest resemblance to a city, consisting of large solid houses 
formerly inhabited by Europeans, and numerous streets of 
houses in the Indian style. This part of the town is mostly 
inhabited by Hindoos, Parsees, Malays, &g. There is, besides, 
the Chinese quarter, built and arranged like a Chinese town, 
and peopled by several thousand of this enterprising and in- 
dustrious nation. The residences of the English merchants are 
in a hue along the coast of the bay. They are generally large, 



To Calcutta. 87 

square, unarchitectural buildings, in roomy compounds, shaded 
by fine trees. As in China and Calcutta, these buildings were 
generally of brick stuccoed. 

The hotel where we stayed was a very large establishment, 
consisting of three main buildings, and many outhouses in a 
great compound. We took our meals under a sort of shed in 
the open air. The servants were all Chinese, who make, I 
think, the best servants in the world. The house itself was 
uncomfortable, as are almost all houses in the East, even the 
best private ones, to people with European ideas. The great 
size of the apartments, the bare floors of the bed-rooms, the 
paucity and poverty of the furniture, with the fact that neither 
the doors nor the windows will close tightly, give a stranger 
anything but a feeling of comfort. All large houses m the 
East, are built with an open hall in the centre, to admit of a 
free passage of air. The rooms open on this hall, the doors of 
the sleeping apartments not being closed at night, but a cur- 
tain being drawn across the lower part instead. 

Having been well seasoned by a summer in China, we did 
not find the heat oj^pressive at Singapore although it is nearly 
on the line. 

It was at Singapore that I first saw something of oriental 
as distinguished from Chinese life. The population is, to be 
sure, one-half composed of Chinese emigrants, but most of the 
lower classes are Malays, who wear the graceful 8arong^ and 
this city is the temporary residence of traders from all parts 
of the East, Parsees, Jews, Armenians, Turks, Arabs, Indian 
Moosulmans, and representatives of other nationalities, the 
picturesqueness and variety of whose costume pleased and 
surprised me, as I had supposed that most of that show in 
dress, which we read about and see in pictures, had disap- 
peared. None of these natives appeared to be at all Euro- 
peanized, except the Parsees, some of whom wore Euroj^ean 
trowsers and shoes. 

The Parsees are the descendants of the old fire-worshippers 
of Persia, who were driven from their homes by the Mahom- 
medan conquest, and took refuge in India a thousand years 
ago. They still follow the religion of Zerdoosht, and the ever- 



88 India. 

lasting fire, brought with them from Persia, still burns at 
Bombay, and wherever else they are settled. Their sacred 
language is still the Zend, and is the tongue in which their 
prayers are recited. But few, however, even of their priests, 
understand the liturgy, which, in truth, is very much muti- 
lated, the largest part of it having been lost in their hurried 
flight from their Moosulman conquerors. Bombay is the 
chief settlement of this ancient people, and was their first 
place of refuge, but in late years their commercial enterprise 
has led them to settle in all the principal oriental ports. They 
always, however, look upon Bombay as their home, since it is 
the residence of their women, whom they do not take with 
them abroad, on account of the unavoidable publicity of travel- 
ling in public conveyances. The opium trade is now getting 
largely into the hands of the Parsees, of whom there are 
several, both in Shanghae and Canton. Their dress is a long, 
plain cassock of white cotton in summer, of black cloth in win- 
ter. They wear the loose Eastern pa^zjama, or trowser, and 
a high circular turban, resembling a mitre in shape. They 
delight in imitating Occidentals in equipage, &c., and gener- 
ally speak good English. They do not bury their dead, but 
expose them in towers, on hill tops, to be devoured by birds. 

The Malays are a fine athletic race of men, with dark flash- 
ing eyes, clothed generally in nothing but an ample skirt which 
is tucked up behind, and thus made into a kind of trowser. 

In all oriental countries some sort of conveyance is always 
employed, in going about, both on account of the heat and as 
a protection against the coup de soleil, which is supposed to 
arise from peculiar properties in the sun's rays quite separate 
from their heat. In China, I have said that people go about 
in sedan-chairs ; in Singapore, they use, as a substitute, a little 
four-wheeled carriage, with room in the interior for two only, 
sitting facing one another. These Httle traps are called pdJr 
Jcee gdrrhees, (the Hindoostanee word for a carriage being 
garrhee) and are commonly drawn by one horse, the groom 
running by his side, as there is generally no box seat for a driver. 

The Malay proas deserve the reputation they enjoy for 
beauty of model and speed. They are generally propelled by 



To Calcutta. 89 

oars, but the largest ones by sails. The evening before we 
left Singapore two other passengers and myself took one of 
these proas to go round by water to our steamer, which lay 
five or six miles from the hotel, and were caught in a tropical 
storm, which wet us through, and drove us among the coral 
reefs, where we nearly went to pieces. After escaping from 
the reefs, we got among the nets and fishing-stakes, which 
were almost as dangerous, as it continued to blow a gale, 
and our boat ran half way on the tops of the nets, and being 
very crank, came near being capsized several times. We got 
back after a couple of hours, and were heartily thankful to 
put our feet on terra firina again, although we had to walk 
six miles, by land, around to the ship, which started at six the 
next morning. 

Singapore is a British settlement, and has only become a 
place of importance since the British occupation. It is under 
the jurisdiction of the East India Company, and is used by 
them as a convict settlement. I saw several chain-gangs of 
Indian convicts working on the roads. Transportation is in 
India a favourite penalty, since it is regarded by the natives as 
the most terrible of all punishments. By the religion of the 
Hindoos, all caste is lost by leaving India. The high caste 
Sepoys of the Bengal army have on several occasions mutinied 
rather than break through this rule of their religion, which 
forbids their leaving India — a rule the infringement of which 
is punished, according to their belief, by the perdition of the 
ofiender and of his ancestors and descendants for seven gen- 
erations. For this and other reasons, "kala panee" (black 
water), as the natives call transportation across the leaden sea, 
is looked upon as the last misfortune, and a calamity to which 
death is infinitely preferable. 

During my stay in Singapore I went into the Court of 
Justice, and saw the judge in the same hot scarlet robe which 
is worn in England. He looked as if etiquette would be the 
death of him. In Australia, the judges wear the wig, and 
not the gown ; in India, they wear the close robe and no 
wig: which of the two is the more oppressive, I suppose no 
one but the sufierers themselves can tell. 



go India. 

We arrived without fiirtlier adventure at the " Sandheads," 
which mark the mouth of the Hoogly river, on the 13th of 
October. I had had a most pleasanit passage, having been 
much ]3leased with the captain and my fellow-passengers. The 
only drawback was the cock-roaches and spiders. The crew on 
the Lancefield^ like those on the P. & O. Company's steamers, 
was composed of all sorts of nationalities, each of which had 
its appropriate work. First, the captain and mates were 
Scotch — that being a nation which has many representatives 
among the British in the East, particularly in the mercantile 
classes. Secondly, the quartermasters and secunnies (helms- 
men) were fi'om Manilla and China, and wore the naval 
costume of duck-trowsers, and a shirt with a broad blue 
collar. Thirdly, the crew of the captain's gig were China- 
men, who make the best rowers in the East. Fourthly, the 
firemen and stokers were great burly negroes from Africa, 
known as seedipoys. Fifthly, the cabin servants, to j)ull the 
punkahs, were Sooratee Moosulmans. Sixthly, the khitmut- 
gras, who waited at table, were Calcutta Moosulmans. These 
two last classes wore the chupJcun^ or double-breasted cassock, 
which forms one of the most common dresses in India. On 
their heads they had narrow flat turbans. The negroes had 
no clothing but a cloth around the waist, and a low basket- 
work cap, with a rude turban twisted around it. This cap 
was also worn by the cabin boys from Soorat. The mariners 
were Lascars, or,' as they are more properly called from the 
name of their caste, Kulassees. They are a low caste of 
Moosulmans, coming from the Malabar coast, and a more 
spiritless, miserable looking set of men I never saw. Hindoos 
never become sailors, as their caste forbids their leaving India, 
and they would not probably be much inclined to a seafaring 
life even if this obstacle did not stand in the way. In shipping 
a Lascar crew, three times as many are always taken as if they 
were white sailors, and this gives about the correct ratio of 
their relative strength and activity. It is not usual to provide 
any shelter for the Lascars at night, but they stow themselves 
away on deck in the snuggest place they can find, and are 
allowed to select the softest planks as a bed. They never take 



To Calcutta. 91 

more than two suits of clothes on board with them, and keep 
one of these suits for muster-days, so that our fellows wore 
the same wet clothes day and night from Hong Kong to Sin- 
gapore. The Lascars are under the immediate direction of 
natives called tyndals^ answering to our boatswain's mates. 
Each tyndal ships the men whom he commands, they having 
either voluntarily adopted him for their master on shore, or 
being so much in his debt as to be in his power — so that a 
tyndal is in some respect like a sailors' boarding-house keeper 
with us. Above the tyndals is the serang, answering to our 
boatswain. The European officers very seldom attempt to 
work or discipline the men, leaving all that in the hands of 
the serang and his subordinates, to whom they give the orders. 
The men are not divided into watches, but when they are not 
wanted drop ofi* to sleep on deck. When some hands are called 
to do any piece of work, the tyndals go about the deck, drag- 
ging their trembhng men out of the hiding places to which they 
betake themselves, and awaking them to a sense of the reali- 
ties of life by mild applications of the colt (which is said to 
be so called from its " helping you along"). The food of the 
Lascars is rice and salt fish, made into a curry, of which they 
partake squatted on the deck around large kids. The only 
good point of these Kulassees is their agility, which far exceeds 
that of European sailors. They ascend the rigging without 
the help of the ratlins, by inserting the shrouds between the 
toes, at the same time grasping them above with the hands. 
In this way they will loalk up any largo rope as quickly as a 
monkey. They will also, in the same way, walk out a try-sail 
gaff, and, in fact, every Lascar is a far better performer than 
our best acrobats. This peculiarity of the native sailors has 
occasioned the custom of not " rattUng down" the rigging in 
East Lidia ships. Then- skill depends jDrincipally on the use 
they make of their toes, which a native uses with almost as 
much facility as we do our fingers — e. g.. if he sees a small ob- 
ject on the ground, he will not take the trouble to stoop down 
and pick it up, but will take it up with his toes. Nor is it 
with their toes only that the natives display their remarkable 



CfL India. 

supjileness, as I shall have occasion hereafter to remark when 
describing the nach girls and jugglers. 

We lay all night at the mouth of the river, in order to give 
the owners time to profit by the information which we brought, 
and which we telegraphed to them from Saugor, sending a 
boat ashore for the purpose. 

At the pilot-brig which was anchored outside we were 
joined by two officers, who had been down there to spend the 
Doorga Poojah, a two weeks' Hindoo festival, which had just 
ended. This pilot-brig is rather more comfortable than the 
light-ship off New York harbour, and that these gentlemen 
should go there for fresh air and amusement shows how much 
of each can be obtained in Calcutta. 

We began ascending the river on the morning of the 14th 
of October. The Hoogly, as is well known, is one of the 
mouths of the Ganges. In its dirty colour, and general features, 
it resembles the Yang-tze-kiang, Mississippi, and most other 
great alluvial streams. Like them, its navigation is attended 
with great danger, from the shifting of the channel and the 
sudden formation of shoals and banks. In the Hoogly, how- 
ever, the difficulty and danger are increased by the strength and 
swiftness of the tides, which, at certain times, come up the 
river in a wall of water from two to six feet in height, tearing, 
frequently, even the large ships from their moorings. These 
tide- waves are called "bores," and are found, more or less 
developed, wherever the waters are crowded together by a 
cone-shaped bay like that of Bengal. 

The banks of the Hoogly are low and uninteresting, but 
covered with a luxuriant growth of tropical vegetation, above 
which rises the spreading banyan, or tall cocoa-nut tree. The 
river craft are few and ugly, so shaped as to have as small a 
portion of the boat as possible in the water, the bow and stern 
being made high and long, and the bottom flat. This enables 
them to put a great deal of cargo on deck without much re- 
sulting depression of the vessel. The natives whom I here 
saw were, to my surprise, quite black. They were generally 
nearly naked, having only a narrow cloth twisted around the 
loins. The hair was commonly shaven off the head, which was 



To Calcutta. 93 

unprotected by a turban or other covering. I found after- 
wards, however, that this description was applicable to all the 
lower classes in Calcutta. They are certainly a far inferior 
race to the Chinese. On the boats they may be seen squatted 
on the high bow smoking the huhble-bubhle — a position and an 
occupation which are a Bengalee's ideal of existence. The 
huhhle-huhhle^ as the foreigners call the commonest kind of 
native hookah^ from the peculiar noise heard when it is smoked, 
merits a description, as its use is one of the standard occupa- 
tions of a native's life ; and its awkwardness, with the impos- 
sibility of doing any active work while it is in use, are very 
characteristic. It consists of a cocoa-nut shell, half filled with 
water, and pierced above with two apertures. Through one 
of these, which is on top, passes a tube descending into the 
water. The other hole is for the mouth. The tube is ten 
inches or a foot long, and is surmounted by the earthen chil- 
lum^ or pipe-bowl. The smoke passes down the tube, through 
the water, and out of the small hole into the smoker's mouth. 
The tobacco, as used by the natives, is formed into a soft paste 
with molasses, and has to be kept aUght by the contact of 
burning charcoal, or balls of dried cow-dung, called ghools^ 
which are ignited and laid on the tobacco. When used, the 
shell is raised to the mouth with both hands, the tube and 
chillum rising above the head. It has to be held with great 
steadiness, as any motion will shake off the ghools. ISTo more 
awkward instrument could be devised, and none better calcu- 
lated to induce inaction in a people whose chief pleasure is 
smoking, and who are naturally lazy. 

But to return to the Hoogly. I have said that it resembled 
the Yang-tze-kiang, but many things showed that we were not 
on that river, or in China. First, the small numbers, and 
awkward build and rig of the native craft, with the laziness 
of their navigators. Then, again, the river was covered at 
one place with floating timber, from a lumber vessel which 
had gone to pieces the day before. In China every stick 
would have been picked up in an hour. Another most disa- 
greeably distinctive feature was the dead bodies, bloated, 



94 India. 

blenched, and covered with vultures and crows, which we 
constantly passed. The regular plan is to burn the dead and 
throw the ashes into the river ; but in this observance the will 
is taken for the deed, and the relatives burn as much of the 
body as can be consumed by the amount of wood which they 
can afford. As wood is very dear in' Calcutta and most Hin- 
doos very poor, it consequently happens that the body is gen- 
erally only half burned, or even only singed; and no more 
disgusting sight can be conceived than such a corpse, swollen 
by decomposition, half destroyed by the fire and half eaten by 
the birds, the skin bleached by the weather, affording " shel- 
ter and food" to numerous prawns and shrimps, who fatten on 
such diet for the famous " prawn cm-ry" of Calcutta. 

For the last two miles before reaching Calcutta the scenery 
of the river is so beautiful that it is known as " Garden Keach." 
On the eastern shore are numerous large houses, the residences 
of Europeans. The compounds are large, and filled with beau- 
tiful trees. A fine road leads down from the city, and is a 
favourite drive in the evening. On the opposite bank of the 
river is the Botanical Garden, a very extensive establishment, 
which the Calcutta people suppose to contain the largest ban- 
yan tree in the world. 

In a window of one of the houses in Garden Reach we saw 
the King of Oude. He was sitting in a chair watching the 
arrival of our steamer. Two servants, with long fans of pea- 
cocks' feathers, brushed the flies away from his majesty. 

For the last year or so the King has been kept in confine- 
ment on account of suspected complicity in the revolt. It is 
doubtful if the government will be able to prove anything 
against him in a court of law; though in India every one 
befieves that he and his minister, Ali Nakhi Khan, were aware 
of the plot from the first, and that they were among the ori- 
ginal conspirators. At any rate, his whole offence is confined 
to concealing from the government what he knew, and abet- 
ting the plots of his minister, since the miserable wretch is so 
utterly exhausted by a life of brutal debauchery as to be quite 
incapable of devising any great scheme, or taking an active 



To Calcutta. 95 

part in it. It is to be hoped that he will not be again re- 
leased, and permitted to re-establish such a nest of nameless 
vices as was his mansion in Garden Keach, In truth, a life 
spent in confinement would not be an inappropriate termina- 
tion to the career of one who, in his own person, degraded 
human nature below the level of the lowest brute. 



CHAPTER IX. 

CALCUTTA. 

Palkees — Buggies — ^The City of Calcutta — Government House — Tanks — ^Baz&rs — The 
largest Mint in the World — Supreme Court — Conflict of Laws — Missions and Schools 
— Spence's Hotel— Servants — Expenses of Living in India — Civil Servants — Their 
Salaries— The Language of the Camp— A People without a Country, and a Country 
without a Name. 

On landing in Calcutta I was at once surrounded by a 
crowd of nearly naked " niggers," painted all over the face 
and breast with red and white streaks, the sign of their hav- 
ing made poojah, i. e., done worship to some idol that morning. 
These gentlemen crowded me so much with their black, oily 
bodies, that I found a vigourous beating with my umbrella 
necessary to keep them at a respectful distance. They offered 
to convey my luggage to the hotel, and I accepted the ser- 
vices of one fellow, who at once distributed the various arti- 
cles to about twenty others, one carrying a carpet-bag, another 
an umbrella, &c. I then inserted myself in a palanquin, or, as 
they are commonly called in Bengal, palkee. This is a black 
box, seven feet long, three feet high, closed all around, with a 
sliding door in the side, and furnished inside with a mattrass 
and bolster. At each end of the palkee, near the top, there 
is a pole, three feet long, projecting at right angles, which the 
bearers rest on their shoulders. Four bearers are under the 
palkee at any one time, and two more run alongside as a 
relief. To enter the palkee you turn your back toward it and 
sit down on the mattrass in its bottom, and then, by a dex- 
terous " slew," bring your legs and head inside. You then 
lie down and are carried along reclining at full length. The 
palkee-bearers have a peculiar lock-step which prevents the 
least jolt, and nothing can be more luxurious than this mode 
of conveyance, at least for short distances. 



Calcutta. ▼ gy 

Palkees were formerly universally used by foreigners in 
going about the city, but they are now suj^planted by garr- 
hees and buggies ; the former, a vehicle which I have de- 
scribed when speakmg of Singapore ; the latter, a two-wheeled 
gig, with a top descending very low m front to keep off the 
sun. Eveiybody in Calcutta keeps or hires a buggy ; even 
the captains of ships, and some of the mates, have their bug- 
gies waiting for them all day on the quay. The necessity of 
some conveyance arises fi.*om the impossibility of walking out 
exposed to the sun. In the palmy days of palkees, they were 
richly ornamented, and a single one would often cost as much 
as 3,000 rupees, or $1,500 ; and a certain number of palkee-bear- 
ers were a necessary part of every gentleman's household. 

Calcutta is situated on the eastern branch of the Hoogly, 
and was the first concession to the British in this part of India. 
It was, when they obtained it, only a miserable village, known 
as Kalee-Ghat, of which its present name is a corruption. It 
is now supposed to have 600,000 inhabitants at least. Below 
the city of Calcutta, and between it and " Garden Reach," is 
a broad open j^lain, of from 100 to 150 acres, running along 
the water's edge. This is called the " Esplanade," or, as fre- 
quently by its Hindoostanee name, Maidan. It is the great 
drive of Calcutta, being divided by fine broad macadamized 
roads bordered with trees. The space between the roads is 
plain turf. Along the river's bank runs the largest of these 
roads, called the " Strand," where is seen in the evening the 
greatest show of carriages and equipages. Fort William, 
the principal defence of Calcutta, and one of the strongest 
fortresses in the world, is on the river's bank, wholly contained 
within the Maidan. Around the Maidan is built the European 
portion of Calcutta — fine houses of stuccoed brick, covering 
much ground, but commonly not over two stories high, and 
generally without compounds. At the lower extremity of the 
Maidan, surrounded by fine trees, is the cathedral, a large 
decorated Gothic building, of no particular merit. The finest 
building in Calcutta is Government House — the residence of 
the Governor General. It fronts on the Esplanade, but is 
surrounded by an open square of its own. It consists of two 

5 



98 * India. 

semicircular galleries, placed back to. back, and meeting in a 
central hall. Rows of columns decorate the exterior, a dome 
surmounts the central pavilion, the entrance is by a broad and 
massive flight of stone steps, and the whole is of sufficient 
size to be imposing, and even majestic. Between Govern- 
ment House and the river is the Town Hall, and Spence's 
Hotel, where I stopped. The whole vicinity of Government 
House Square is built up with fine private residences, and 
streets of shops, which are here on a large scale. 

The side of the town toward the river is separated from the 
water by a broad quay, fronting on which are the stores of 
the merchants, similar to the private houses in architecture 
and extent, but much higher. They were formerly occupied 
by the merchants as residences — a custom which still obtains 
in China. Behind this line of princely counting-houses, be- 
hind that mass of noble residences which surrounds the Maidan 
and Government House Square, and which have given Cal- 
cutta its name, " The City of Palaces," shut out from all 
view, and light, and air, are the narrow, filthy streets with 
open sewers, the dark and winding lanes, the low and squahd 
huts, which form the vast native town, or, as it is commonly 
called, the " Black Town" of Calcutta. 

Calcutta being altogether a modern place, contains no 
native buildings of interest — the Hindoo temples and Ma- 
hommedan mosques being all small and insignificant. The 
latter are without minarets, which compel the Muezzin to 
stand at the door when calling the faithful to prayer — a call to 
which, in Calcutta, they rarely attend, as they are altogether 
a very spurious and inferior variety of Moosulmans. 

The city is supphed with drinking water from wells, but 
there are beside large tanks, or 023en reservoirs excavated 
from the earth. These tanks are commonly 150 or 200 yards 
long by 100 wide, and thirty or forty feet deep. These 
become filled in the rainy season, and their water is used for 
washing, bathing, sprinkling the roads, &c. One of the tanks, 
much larger than the others, is filled from the Hoogiy by a 
steam pump. These tanks are quite universal in Lower Bengal, 
about country houses, each house having several. 



Calcutta. 99 

The bazars, of which the city is full, are nasty, narrow, 
native streets, of little low shops. In them you can buy 
almost anything at ridiculously low rates,by wasting time and 
patience in chaifering with the natives, who almost stun you 
as you walk through, with their clamorous entreaties to enter 
their shops, and the enumeration of their stock, and its excel- 
lence. Here, as throughout the East, it is always customary 
to ask many times as much for a thing as the seller expects to 
obtain. 

The Calcutta mint is the largest establishment of the kind 
in the world, the next in size being the mints at Bombay and 
Madras. It is situated in the upper part of the city on the 
quay. The machinery is of the best kind, and on a much 
larger scale than at either London or Paris. The coin struck 
is the Company's rupee, of the value of two shillings sterling, 
and copper pieces. No gold coin is now struck, gold not 
being in India a legal tender, or even a recognized currency. 

During my stay at Calcutta, I attended the sessions of 
the Supreme Court, which are held in the Town Hall. The 
jurisdiction of this tribunal extends to all cases in Calcutta, 
and over all the inhabitants of the United Kinc^dom residinsr 
in the Jlofussil — a native term used to designate all parts 
of India, except the three Presidency towns. There ig 
another Supreme Court, the Suddur Dewan-ee-Adawlut, a 
Comj^any's Court, which hears appeals from the Courts in the 
Mofussil. N'o Englishman can be tried excej^t in the Presi- 
dency town, and before the Supreme Court, with all the priv- 
ileges of the common law of England. On the other hand, 
no native can be tried in the Presidency town, for an offence 
committed in the Mofussil, but must be conveyed up country 
to undergo trial. These regulations are the means of prevent- 
ing many vexatious prosecutions, as a native possesses to 
a large extent the common faihng of a fondness for law. In 
the Mofussil the criminal proceedings are very simple, the 
delay short, and the punishment, though mild, certain, except 
in the case of capital sentences, which must all come before 
the Suddur Court for approval. In all British India, with its 
100,000,000 of inhabitants, there is but one Court in each 



lOO India. 

Presidency which can, of its own authority, inflict the pun- 
ishment of death. 

The pleadings and legal proceedings in the Supreme Court 
are in English ; in the Suddur Court, as in all the Company's 
Courts, they are in Persian, the speeches and examinations 
being in almost any of the numerous tongues spoken in India. 
The civil proceedings in the Company's Courts are somewhat 
confused and unsettled, as the Hindoo and Moosulman codes 
with all the peculiar native usages and customs have been 
allowed to prevail, almost unchanged. Thus the institutes of 
Menoo, the Shastras, and Yedas form the only standard of the 
Hindoo law, while the Koran is the sole guide to the Moosul- 
man code. Again, there are large classes like the converted 
Christians and half-castes hving in the Mofussil, who are not 
properly subjected to either of these codes. It may be 
imagined that the Company's Judges get rather confused in 
this " conflict of laws," especially as they are never educated 
for lavryers — perhaps this last fact is the real secret of their 
being able to administer at all so confused a system. 

Calcutta is the seat of many missionary establishments, 
one of the largest of which is the schools of the Free Scotch 
Church. It is situated in the native town near the mint. 
The buildings are large and suitably arranged, and the ben- 
efits of instruction are eagerly sought by the native children. 
The Enghsh language is almost exclusively employed, and the 
scholars, when their education is complete, generally become 
Baboos, or native clerks in foreign commercial houses. One 
of the instructors took great pains in showing me over the es- 
tabhshment. He says the boys are very bright and eager to 
learn, but the converts are few ; instruction seems only to 
destroy their faith in their own superstitions. In this school 
the prejudices of caste are entirely disregarded, and the 
Brahmun sits on the same bench with the Soodra. The 
teacher told me, however, that the Brahmun boys were often 
very much delayed on their way to school, being stopped by 
the common people that they might bless their stock of 
drinking water by dipping in it their sacred feet. In old 
times, the touch of one of a lower caste would have defiled 



Calcutta. lOl 

a Brahmun for the day. In fact, in Calcutta, among educated 
natives, (who, it should be remembered, are, after all, only a 
small class), the j^rejudices of caste have been very much 
modified, and many of them will eat or drink "^dth Christians, 
and even partake of the sacred flesh of a cow, and indulge in 
the forbidden cup. The latter practice, many of them carry 
out to its fullest extent, and it may be doubted whether their 
releas^ from the other prejudices is not dearly purchased at the 
price of the spreading habit of intoxication. These enfran- 
chised Hindoos continue to celebrate their idolatrous rites 
and perform all such ceremonies as are necessary to prevent 
their expulsion from caste, which involved until quite recently 
by the law of India, ciml death; but, in heart, they are deists 
or atheists, and make no scruple of avowing their infidelity. 
The strict seclusion in which native women are kept, has pre- 
vented the formation of girls' schools — but some efibrts have 
been made, vrith partial success, by the missionaries' wives, 
for their private instruction. 

Spence's hotel, where I stayed, while in Calcutta, is a " fur- 
nished apartment " sort of establishment. There is a table 
d'hote^ to be sure, but each man has to keep his own servants, 
or he will not be waited on at table, and his rooms wUl not 
be cleaned. Servants, in Calcutta, are, generally, Moosul- 
mans. Their dress, a tight-fitting, white cotton chupkun^ 
loose 23a?2Jama, and a flat pugree (turban). They speak 
nothing but Hindoostanee, and the first time I took dinner I 
got scarcely anytliing to eat, from not knowing the native 
words for the edibles. I had the greatest trouble in getting a 
native servant, who could speak Enghsh, to accompany me 
up country, and finally had to hire an untrained half caste boy. 
These half-castes, the descendants of a mixture of the English 
or Portuguese, and native races, form a large class in India. 
They dress in a quasi-European costume, and generally speak 
English, though they are mostly as black as any native. They 
are supposed to have all the faults of both native and Euro- 
pean, with none of their virtues, and are, certainly, a dread- 
fully proud, lazy, lying set; on account of which qualities 
Europeans scarcely ever employ them. They are sometimes 



102 India. 

called by the barbarous name of " Eurasians " — a supposed 
compound of "Europe" and "Asia." 

The wages of servants are very low. A JcJiitmutgra^ or 
butler, gets only five or six rupees a month, and the others 
even less. Out of this, to us small sum, they have to feed, 
clothe and lodge themselves and family — for all natives are 
married. But all the necessaries of life are very cheap, and 
the wages of a working man, which are only three or four 
rupees a month, (1 1.50 or $2,) amply suffice for the support of 
his household. 

The number of servants necessary in India, from the sub- 
divisions of labour, and the prejudices of caste, is enormous. 
The servant who pours out the water into your basin, will not 
empty it when dirty; nor would he touch an article of food 
prepared for your use. Much more display of servants was 
customary in the "old Indian" times, when the European 
residents imitated the gorgeous ostentation of the rich natives. 
Bishop Heber says, that in his time, it was customary for 
Enghshmen of rank, to be preceded in the streets by sipahees 
with spear and buckler, hiirJcarus and chohdars bearing mas- 
sive silver maces, a chattah-hurdar^ carrying a large red 
umbrella, and many other followers with fans, etc. ]^ow-a- 
days, all this show is left to the rich natives, who rather despise 
it, and affect the European style. It is still necessary, how- 
ever, to keep very large retinues for the ordinary service of 
the household, and a family of four or five, must, in Calcutta, 
have twenty or thirty servants, so that their wages, though small 
for each, will, in the aggregate, amount to more than the pay 
of the smaller number of domestics who would do the same 
work in Europe. 

The expenses of Hving in Calcutta, and, indeed, throughout 
India, are very large, notwithstanding the low price of food. 
This is owing to several causes. One is the high cost of all 
European goods, (the price of which is kept uj) by the uni- 
versal system of credit, and the consequent number of bad 
debts,) another is the state which it is customary to maintain, 
and the extravagant style of living, with the large use of wine 
and beer, which is universal. House-rent is also very high. 



Calcutta. 103 

This manner of living prevails all over Lidia, and it is rare, 
indeed, to find any one living within his means. The conse- 
quence is, that nearly all the officers of the army, and most of 
the civil servants, are deeply in debt to natives ; and this, 
notwithstanding the high pay of the civil servants, (magis- 
trates, judges, &c.,) who receive from 1,000 to 8,000 rupees a 
month. The Governor-General receives a salary of £25,000 
per annum, besides allowances, which make it amount to as 
much again — but his expenses are very great. 

The Governor-General of India resides at Calcutta, and has 
direction of the general affiiirs of the whole contment, the 
Governors of the two other Presidencies of Bombay and 
Madras being subordinate to him — though not to the same 
extent, as are the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, the Chief 
Commissioner of Oude, the Lieutenant-Governor of Agra and 
the North Western Provinces, and the Chief Commissioner 
of the Punjab, who are directly under his control. The 
Governor-General, and the Governors of the two other Presi- 
dencies, are appointed by the Crown, although under the 
du'ection of the Company, which may dismiss them. All 
other posts in the civil service are, however, now open to 
competition, those persons being appointed who succeed best 
at the Company's civil service examination in London. These 
examinations are open to all British subjects, and several 
natives have passed high, and received very good appoint- 
ments. 

The language of Bengal, is the Bengalee, a tongue which 
has much affinity with the Sanscrit ; but the common language 
used by natives to foreigners, both in Calcutta and throughout 
India, is the Hindoostanee, which is only vernacular in Hin- 
doostan. This Hindoostanee, or, as it is more correctly 
termed, Oordoo, (the camp dialect) is a sort of lingua franca^ 
which arose after the Moosulman conquest, and was invented 
to facilitate intercourse between the conquerers and the con- 
quered. It contains many Arabic, Persian, and Sanscrit words, 
the proportions being dissimilar in difierent parts of the coun- 
try. The further you go to the north-west, the more does 
the Perso-Arabic element prevail. It is a very flexible 



104 



India. 



tongue, readily appropriating words from all languages ; but 
has regular declensions and conjugations. Being only used, 
in the greater part of India, between people who speak dif- 
ferent languages, it is, of course, poor in words, and has no 
Hterature. I said above, that it was vernacular, in parts of 
Hindoostan. This expression may be misunderstood, as the 
term Hindoostan is incorrectly used here, to designate the 
whole peninsula of India. It, really, only describes the coun- 
try north of the IsTurbudda, west of Benares, and east of the 
Sutiej, and is often, if not generally, used in a still more con- 
tracted sense — those of the Rajpootana states, which are 
within these limits, and even the dominions of Scindiah, not 
beiug commonly considered a part of Hindoostan. The term 
Hindoo, also, it should always be remembered, is appropriate 
to a religion, and not to a race. The peninsula of India is 
inhabited, and always has been, by men of various races, dif- 
ferent languages, and subject to numerous independent sov- 
ereigns. Their only tie is caste, which is at once, a bond 
connecting together a certain number, and insulating them 
from all others. There is no approach to a feeling of common 
nationality among the inhabitants of the various countries into 
which India is divided, and in none of the native languages is 
there a word answering to "India," or "an Indian.""^ I 
think I am not wrong in saying that there is far less sympathy 
between a Bengalee, a Hindoostanee, a Punjabee, and a Dek- 
kunee, than between the same number of individuals picked 
out of the most dissimilar countries in Europe. Were these 
facts more generally known, they might remove some mis- 
conceptions with respect to the recent mutiny in India. 

* The word India was formed bj the Romans, from the name of the river 
"Indus " — ^in the native language " Sind." 



CHAPTER X. 

CALCUTTA — CONTINUED. 

Boasting Human Bodies — Adjutants in Calcutta — Unpaid Scavengers — Early Eising — 
The Morning Drive— "The Strand" — Clothing— Country around Calcutta— " Sta- 
tions"— Dum-Dum— Artillery Mess— An Ameer of Sind— Barrackpoor— The Sepoys 
— ^Too much Petted — Some Causes of the Mutiny. 

One of the most remarkable sights in Calcutta, is the 
" Burning Ghat ;" a piece of ground on the river's bank, in 
the upper part of the city, used for the incremation of the 
dead. It is about a hundred feet square, surrounded on three 
sides by brick walls, eighteen or twenty feet high. On the 
fourth side toward the river it is open. The enclosure is 
unpaved and slopes to the water's edge, near which the funeral 
pyres are erected. At the u]3per end, against the wall, are 
miserable huts where those sick Hindoos, who can pay for the 
privilege, come to die near the sacred Gunga — a consummation 
which must be materially hastened by the stench of the local- 
ity, the exposure of lying in wretched hovels made only of 
mats, and the custom of keeping them on a very light diet 
mdeed. In some very obstinate cases, the relatives shorten the 
agonies of their dying relations by stuffing the mouth and nos- 
trils with the sacred mud of the Hoogly. The religious rites 
connected with the burning are in the hands of certain brah- 
muns, the practical details being intrusted to the members of a 
peculiar caste y both drive a thriving trade. Two bodies were 
burning and frizzling on miserably insuffi^cient piles of fuel, when 
I visited the place, and the fetid, deadly, odour of the fumes, 
the horrid, dissecting-room stench of piles of human bones, 
half covered with flesh, on which birds of prey were feeding, 
with the groans and cries of pain from the poor wretches in 
the sheds, soon sickened me with the place, and made me 



io6 India. 

glad to leave. I have before mentioned that the bodies are 
generally only half burned. When all the wood that the 
relatives have jDaid for has been consumed, the roasted car- 
case is thrown into the river, and floats away or not, accord- 
ing to the tide. In either case, it is at once pounced on by the 
loathsome carrion birds, which sit on the wall of the enclosure, 
motionless as statues, waiting till their meal be cooked. 
These birds are called hurgilas^ but have been nicknamed 
adjutants by the foreigners from the solemnity and stiffiiess 
of their carriage. They form quite a feature of Calcutta, 
standing motionless on the roofs of houses, and even in the 
streets and squares. They look like a cross between the 
stork and vulture, stand about three feet high, and measure 
about eight from tip to tip. They have a disgustingly roomy 
pouch under the bill, and are altogether horrid looking crea- 
tures. Their demeanour is particularly calm and sedate, and 
they will stand motionless for hours in the most frequented 
squares, probably reflecting on the possibility of their soon 
making a meal on the passers-by. They will let you come as 
near them as you like, having no fear of man, as a city regula- 
tion prevents their being molested. This immunity they owe 
to their being the only scavengers, except the other carrion 
birds, of which there are great numbers in Calcutta. No such 
birds are seen in China, where the dead are all buried, and 
everything else on which they feed is carefully collected, and 
made into manm'e, or turned to some useful purpose. The 
filthy condition of Indian towns and villages contrasts most 
disadvantageously Vkdth Chinese towns ; I do not believe that 
there are any cleaner cities in the world than the latter, if the 
narrowness of the streets and the absence of drainage be taken 
into account. 

Europeans in India keep very different hom-s from those in 
China. Every house in Calcutta is shut up. by ten o'clock, 
and the whole city is asleep. In this respect the habits of 
foreigners depend very much upon those of the natives. In 
China, where the Chinese Hke to sit up late, foreigners con- 
form, and do not go to bed before twelve, getting up very 
late. In Bengal, however, all the servants leave their mas- 



Calcutta. 



107 



ter's house by ten, or before, to go to their own homes — and 
rise very early in the morning, customs which the Europeans 
are forced to imitate. Uj^-country, the natives keep later 
hours, but the requirements of the service compel the officers 
to rise before day-break, when parade takes place, and in con- 
sequence they generally retire to bed by nine o'clock in the 
evening. 

The custom of rising early in Calcutta, enables the residents 
to get a ride before breakfast — the early morning being the 
only part of the day, until after sunset, when exercise is pos- 
sible in the Indian cUmate. From five till seven in the morn- 
ing the Maidan is covered with ladies and gentlemen on 
horseback; but the greatest show is in the evening, from 
half-past five to seven. Between these hours, every one in 
Calcutta, who can muster any vehicle, betakes himself to the 
Strand, which is then as crowded as Hyde Park in the season. 
The equij^ages are, some of them, very handsome, but entirely 
English in style, even when they belong to rich natives. The 
coachmen are ah natives, and generally wear long beards. 
They drive remarkably well. Each carriage has as many 
saeeses or grooms, as there are horses. They are Moosulmans 
of a peculiar caste, and wear a short tight-fitting jacket and 
flat turban, the lower part of the body being covered by a 
tightly wound dhotee which leaves the legs bare. They carry 
in their hands the chouree^ or tail of the Thibet goat, fitted 
with a short handle; with this, running along side of the 
horses, they brush away the flies. These saeeses will run for 
almost any distance with a carriage, or after the horse upon 
which their master rides, and up-country their endurance is 
often put to severe tests. In Calcutta, however, as the roads 
in the Maidan are very crowded, the saeeses are generally 
allowed to sit on the footboard. Beside the neat turn-outs of 
the Europeans, one sees on the Strand the equipages of the 
rich natives, which are also in the English style, but much 
gayer, each carriage being often accompanied by six or eight 
servants, including a " silver-stick." The owner of ^W this 
splendour will sit alone on the back seat of the carriage, 
divested of aU clothing, if a Bengalee baboo, except a fine 



io8 India. 

linen dhotee from the waist downward. These baboos, or 
native merchants, are often enormously rich, and live in as 
handsome houses, and in as elegant style, as the most wealthy 
Europeans. They ape the English customs to a great extent. 
The native princes, many of whom live at Calcutta on large 
pensions from the Company, also appear on the drive. Their 
carriages and attendants are commonly similar to those of the 
baboos, but with them dress is a great consideration, and 
their costume is frequently magnificent. Beside these large 
carriages, there are crowds of buggies, containing officers and 
gentlemen ; and a great many caranchees^ a miserable, broken- 
down sort of garrhee, unpainted, imwashed, drawn by a single 
animated skeleton of a horse, and driven by a naked nigger, 
who perches on the narrow box-seat, holding the rope-reins 
with one hand, and with the other plying the whip with un- 
remitting diligence. These caranchees are a sight such as 
can be seen nowhere else than in Calcutta. They are com- 
monly filled with Bengalee clerks, or a drunken party of 
sailors from the ships in the harbour. In contrast with these 
are the Arab horse-dealers, who come to Calcutta with Arab 
horses for sale, and who take advantage of the evening to 
show off their steeds, riding them at full speed across the 
grassy esplanade. They dress in loose and graceful robes of 
brightly-contrasted colours, their horsemanship is magnificent, 
and their horses combine every perfection but size, which is 
the one drawback to an Arab horse. 

English horses will not stand the climate of India, and the 
native animal is a coarse, heavy-boned, big-headed beast, with 
an ugly temper. Many horses are consequently brought from 
Arabia, but their price is very high. The best, and cheapest 
breed is that raised at the Honourable Company's stud stables, 
from which officers have to buy their chargers. The stud- 
horses combine the good qualities of the Arab and native 
breeds, of which they come; being larger, and more bony 
than the pure Arab, but possessing all his suppleness, speed, 
and good temper. 

Perhaps, no one thing surprised me so much, on first land- 
ing in India, as the complexion and features of the natives. I 



Calcutta. 



109 



had always supposed them to be of a brownish colour, and to 
have something like a Caucasian countenance. I found them 
in Bengal nearly black, and with a very low cast of counte- 
nance. Up-country, the features become finer, but even in 
Hindoostan, the mass of the people are very dark. Towards 
Bombay, the complexion of the inhabitants is lighter, but 
they never have the clear slun^ which is a distinctive mark of 
the Caucasian race, and which is found even among its dark- 
est variety, the Spaniards, when the blood is unmixed by 
Moorish, or Negro contamination. 

The mass of the people in Bengal wear no clothing, but a 
narrow cloth around the loins. The women, however, and 
the men of the better classes, dress in a wide long piece of the 
finest muslin, which is disposed around the body so as to form 
a skirt, or loose trowser below (the dhotee), and is then 
brought up over the shoulders, completely covering the whole 
body, and falling nearly to the ground, in graceful folds. This 
is a most picturesque costume, especially when seen in the 
country, but a most unmanageable dress to do any work in. 

The country around Calcutta, though very level, is yet 
pretty, and in some places even beautiful, from the luxuriance 
of the vegetation. The roads are broad, and finely made, and 
the trees which border them are of great size. The whole 
was a scene of exuberant vegetable life, which, perhaps, im- 
pressed me the more, because I had become accustomed to 
the utilitarian neatness of China, where nothing is allowed to 
go to waste, and not a tree or bush j^ermitted to encumber 
the ground, except it is directly useful to man. Agriculture 
in India is quite a difierent thing from Chinese cultivation, 
being conducted in the most lazy and careless manner, and 
the whole of the crops are often pledged to some native 
banker for sums advanced before the ground was planted. In 
fact, while I remained in India, I became daily more impressed 
with the inferiority of the people to the Chinese, and their 
want of that economy, order, and industry which enables the 
latter nation to bo comfortable, even on the smallest means. 
The huts of the natives of India are miserable mud. hovels, 
unfit for pigs, wretchedly thatched, and afford a most insuf 



no India. 

ficient protection against the rain ; while the houses of the 
Chinese agriculturists are always solid, in good repair, and 
comfortable looking, however poor the dwellers in them may 
be. 

The vicinity of Calcutta, for five or six miles around, is a 
favourite place of residence of the European merchants, and 
rich natives from the city. All along the roads, one passes 
large, handsome country-houses, in the Anglo-Indian style, 
about a quarter of a mile from one another. The compounds 
are planted with fine large trees, and the lawns covered with 
turf, which does very well in Bengal, though such a thing is 
never seen in any other part of India. Many of these sub- 
urban residences are occupied by native princes, who have 
been deposed, and are detained at Calcutta, or who prefer to 
live at that city. The former class are always in the receipt 
of large pensions from Government, but they generally con- 
trive to spend all they get, living very expensively, and being 
an easy prey to horse-jockeys and other sharpers. 

I had letters to the officer commanding the artillery sta- 
tioned at Calcutta. I found him at Dum-Dum, which is the 
artillery station, as Barrackpoor is the infantry station of the 
capital. All troops in India are stationed near the cities which 
they protect, but not in them. The stations consist of a vil- 
lage of mud huts for the soldiers, and lines of bungalows for 
the officers ; each bungalow being separated from the others 
by a compound, and generally inhabited by two officers, who, 
unless they are married, prefer to divide the expense of the 
rent. Every station contains a shop, where all sorts of Euro- 
pean stores can be obtained ; a bazar, where the soldiers buy 
their food and other necessaries, and a mess-house, where the 
unmarried officers dine in common. In*large stations there is 
also a church, with a chaplain appointed by Government. 
Where two or more regiments occupy the same station, there 
is a bazar for each regiment, and each has its own lines. It 
will be understood, that when I speak of soldiers, I mean the 
native sepoys, who, until recently, formed the army of India ; 
and in describing the cantonments, I describe arrangements 
which are done away with by the revolt of the soldiery, the 



Calcutta. Ill 

murder of the officers, or their forced flight, and the burning 
of the bungalows, stores, and churches, 

Dum-Duni was a very large station, but when I was there, 
had been diminished in importance by the removal of the 
artillery head-quarters to Meeruth. I found Colonel Mowatt, 
to whom my letter was directed, living in the largest bunga- 
low, which was about forty feet square, and two stories high. 
He was a most amiable person, who took the greatest pains to 
amuse and entertain me during my stay in Calcutta; and 
when I went up-country, gave me letters to several officers, 
which I found a great advantage. I dined, by the Colonel's 
invitation, at the artillery mess-house, which is considered the 
finest building of the kmd in India ; it is very spacious, and 
decorated in front by a broad verandah, with a fine row of 
columns. The officers were, like all those whom I had the 
pleasure of meeting in India, a very gentlemanly set of 
men. Several of them obligingly gave me letters to friends in 
the interior, and Major Broom, whom I met at the mess, 
showed me the Company's gun foundry at Cossipoor, of which 
he was the director, and kindly made me a present of some 
curious native armour. I spent a couple of days at Dum-Dum 
with Colonel Mowatt, who was unremitting in his attentions. 
He showed me over the Dum-Dum percussion-cap manufac- 
tory, of which he was at the time, the head; took me to an 
amateur theatrical performance by the officers, and some 
European soldiers ; and got me an invitation to a ball at the 
mess-house, where most of the great peoj)le of Calcutta were 
present. The Colonel took me also to visit one of the de- 
posed Ameers of Sind, who lives in an elegant residence near 
Dum-Dum. On the road to the Ameer's, we passed a large 
country-seat, called " Seven Tanks," belonging to a wealthy 
native merchant, in the inclosure of which we saw a rhinoce- 
ros, standing in a pond of water. Of elephants, I saw several 
in the roads about Calcutta, but none in the city itself There 
are now but few of them used lower down the country than 
Oude. 

On asking for the Ameer, we heard that he was taking his 
siesta, but, just as we were about driving away, he came out on 



112 India. 

the verandah and invited us to walk in, having been awakened 
by the noise of our carriage. He received us in a very large, 
plain room, Avith no other furniture than 2upullun (low native 
bedstead) in the centre, and a few chairs about the wall. The 
Ameer seated himself cross-legged on the pullun, over which 
swung a punkah, and we took chairs near him. He was a 
little man, of clear olive complexion, and a very Jewish caste 
of features ; not having dressed since his nap, he wore only 
a fine muslin shirt, and loose pa72Jama of the same material. 
We remained nearly an hour, the colonel and the Ameer con- 
versing in Persian, the court language of the East. Of course 
I could take no direct part in what they said, but the colonel 
translated to me the most interesting remarks of the prince. 
Before we left, the Ameer showed us several swords, daggers 
and other arms, which were heirlooms in his family. These 
weapons were of the finest Indian steel, which is considered 
superior to that made in Europe. The hilts, scabbards, belts 
and buckles of these arms were decorated in the most magni- 
ficent manner with diamonds and other jewels. One sword 
was estimated to be worth £40,000, and one dagger, nearly 
half that sum. The Ameer also brought out for our inspec- 
tion a copy of the Koran, which had been in his family for 
two hundred years. It was written on the finest vellum, and 
the execution was as perfect as that of any manuscript I have 
seen. The case which contained it was of velvet, set with 
jewels, worth many thousand pounds. At the end of the 
volume were the signatures of the other Ameers, the brothers 
or cousins of our entertainer, who wrote them there when 
they swore on this book, to be faithful unto death to him and 
each other, having done which, with the usual fidelity of 
natives, they betrayed him to the English the same day. The 
Ameer's servants were all old followers, dressed like their 
master in the long muslin shirt, the pa^^jama, and the low, red 
cap, with a projecting crown, Vv^hich form the costume of Sind. 
They were tall, heavily built men, with long white locks, and 
magnificent snowy beards, their complexion clear, although 
rather tawny, their gait and bearing majestic — altogether as 
fine looking specimens of men as you will easily see. They 



Calcutta. 113 

reminded me a little of the old representations of men in the 
Nineveh sculptures. 

Barrackpoor, the infantry station of Calcutta, and the scene 
of the premonitory symptoms of the recent general mutiny, is 
situated about 1 5 miles from the city ; while the distance from 
the city to Dum-Dum is only 6 miles. There was always a 
considerable number of troops at Barrackpoor, only two regi- 
ments being kept in Fort William. It is also the residence 
for the greater part of the year of the Governor General, who 
has here a magnificent mansion, surrounded by gardens and 
enclosed in a large park, well filled with trees. 

It was at Calcutta that I first saw the Sepoys, or more 
properly Si2)ahees, from sipali^ the Persian word for a bow. 
They were a better looking race of men than the Bengalees, 
being recruited up-country. Their uniform was similar to that 
of English soldiers, except that their shako had no leather 
peak, which would be an ofience to their caste. The Sepoys 
always looked better when oft' duty in their native dress, than 
when in uniform, as they had not the prominent chest of the 
European ; and the heavy red coat seemed a most inappro- 
priate dress for the climate. However, they were very proud 
of it, and so much did it take the fancy of the natives, that 
years ago it v>^as introduced into the armies of all the mdej^en-- 
dent native princes. The Sepoys made good troops generally, 
and would fight well enough in company with European regi- 
ments, of which the Honourable Company had seven, and the 
Queen generally twenty or more, in India. The English regi- 
ments wear, in this hot climate, an undress uniform of white 
cotton, with a cap of the same, having a w^hite turban wound 
around it. A turban is found to be the best protection against 
the eftects of the Indian sun, and no European ever goes out 
without one round his hat. 

The great trouble with the Sepoys was that they were 
always too much petted. Their pay was higher than what 
they could have earned by any other occupation; and far 
higher than that of any army in Europe, if the expense of 
the necessaries of life be taken into account. The lowest 
wages of a Sepoy were six rupees per month, more than double 



114 India, 

the ordinary wages of a labouring man, and a sum which 
would equal $35 to $40 in this country. Their caste was high, 
and its requirements exacting ; they could not pass the limits 
of India, eat certain food, wear certain clothing, or cook their 
meals in less than a certain number of hours, which were 
necessary for the performance of the religious ceremonies 
which are obhgatoryin the preparation of all food to be eaten 
by Hindoos. In all these respects theu' prejudices were very 
properly respected; but when they refused to dig in the 
trenches at Mooltan, and white men did the work, under a 
broihng sun, while the niggers looked on and sneered at them, 
it must be acknowledged that the government was rather too 
complaisant ; and when a white soldier could be flogged with 
five hundred lashes, by order of a regimental court-martial, 
while a Sepoy could not be touched with the lash, it must be 
confessed that the regulations of the army were both unjust, 
and calculated to give the native soldier altogether too high 
an idea of his own importance — particularly as every native 
is accustomed to be flogged and kicked from his earhest in- 
fancy, and never hesitates to use such disciphne on others. The 
extent to which this system of petting the native soldier was 
carried on in India is hardly credable. For the last few years 
,it was scarcely possible to punish a Sepoy for any ofience, the 
process of sending the sentence up for approval, being so 
long and uncertain. The result was that discipline became 
relaxed, and the men haughty, impertinent, and imj^atient of 
the least hardship. It is this state of things which has caused 
several minor mutinies during the last twenty years, and has 
at last ended in the recent ferocious outbreak, and grand 
united effort to step into their masters' shoes. These remarks 
apply principally to the army in the Bengal Presidency, which 
was mainly recruited in Oude, from the high caste Rajpoots. 
In the other Presidencies, and in the Punjab regiments of the 
Bengal army, the men were of low caste, the requirements of 
their religion few or none, and the discipline much stricter. 
The result has been that they have almost without exception 
remained faithful — the wavering of some of the Bombay regi- 
ments being probably attributable to their having been raised 



Calcutta. 



115 



in Oude ; thoiigb, not being Rajpoots, they would probably 
under ordinary circumstances have made as good soldiers as 
any others. The natives of India make excellent mercenaries, 
as they are so split up into nations and castes, that they can 
be easily played against one another; and have so little patri- 
otism that they will serve whoever jDays best. This is one 
great secret of the wonderful spread of the British power in 
India, and it was only on account of the negligence of the 
government, which recruited the Bengal army almost entirely 
from one caste, that it was possible for the instigators of the 
recent mutiny, to produce any unanimous and sympathetic 
action among the various regiments. Had the Bengal army 
contained men of all castes, and of several different nations, 
no general rising could ever have been planned, much less 
carried out, without the government receiving timely warn- 
ing. 



CHAPTER XL 

CALCUTTA. — CONCLUDED. 

Life in Calcutta— My Friends there — The India Trade— Skill of the Natives in Commerce 
—Conduct of American Eesidents during the Eevolt— Travelling in India— The Pa- 
lanquin — " Marching" — Steamboats on the Ganges — Garrhee-dak — The Mail-cart. 

I EEMAiNED about two weeks in Calcutta, during which 
I enjoyed myself very much. It is a pleasant place for a 
stranger during a brief sojourn, is the paradise of the Eng- 
lish in the Mofussil, and life in Calcutta represents the extreme 
of luxurious enjoyment, in the popular imagination of Occiden- 
tals ; yet, I must confess, that existence in the capital of India 
is marked by a wearisome monotony, which would be alone a 
sufficient counterbalance to the luxuries of a large establish- 
ment of servants and splendid dinners, even if the climate, 
the reptiles, and the diseases were all put out of the question. 
Anything like society is almost impossible, where all the world 
goes to bed by half-past nine or ten, in other words, immedi- 
ately after the dinner, which follows the evening drive— and 
where few will expose themselves to the sun's rays in the day- 
time, unless some urgent necessity calls them out of doors. 
There is no theatre, no public amusement of any kind ; and 
the exile cannot even enjoy the pleasures of his family, if a 
married man, as it is necessary for the health, nay, the very 
life of his children, that they should be sent to Europe when 
five or six years old — earlier, if jDossible. The wearisome 
sameness of such an existence can scarcely be imagined. It 
is only surpassed by life in the Mofussil. Many a man who 
envies the Indian civilian his rich appointments, would gladly 
renounce all pretensions could he but experience for a month 
the unenviable life which they lead. 



Calcutta. 117 

Many kindnesses and unexpected attentions gave me a 
most favourable imjoression of those gentlemen in Calcutta, 
whom it was my good fortune to meet. I was especially in- 
debted to Colonel Mowatt and his amiable wife, and several 
officers of the artillery, to the mess of which branch of the 
service I was kindly introduced by Colonel Mowatt. Little 
did they or I anticipate at the time the fate which has since 
overtaken many of them. Colonel Mowatt had a high com- 
mand at the siege of Delhi, and died there — of cholera, it 
was said, like so many others in prominent positions, includ- 
ing several generals-in-chief. Whether this was the case, and 
age, with the cares and anxieties of theu* position, brought on 
the chiefs the disease, from which the younger, but more ex- 
posed, officers entirely escaped, or whether they all perished 
by one of those subtle native poisons which simulate morbid 
action so well, will probably never be ascertained. Mrs. 
Mowatt, who was separated from her husband at the time of 
the outbreak, had to flee into the jungul, and wander there a 
week, exposed to every hardship. My friends among the 
younger officers whom I saw at Dum-Dum were nearly all at 
Meeruth during the mutiny at that place. Many perished 
there — many have since died. Of the fate of the ladies, I am 
ignorant. 

I also was shown much kindness by several Enghsh and 
American merchants, to whom I beg here to return my 
thanks. 

The English merchants mostly do business as agents, or on 
commission". The day for making large and rapid fortunes in 
the East India trade passed away with the explosion of the 
colossal houses which took up the Calcutta trade on the abo 
lition of the Company's monopoly. The chances are now 
the same as in any regular commission business elsewhere 
Native capital is largely employed by the English houses, and 
in many instances the natives have gone into the European 
business in their own names. Their sagacity and shrewdness 
are far greater than those of Europeans, their resources are 
often very large, and were their honesty and fidelity in any 
way commensurate, they would no doubt soon do all the foreign 



Il8 India. 

business in India. The natives have no idea of honour or 
truthfulness, and no regard for character — two defects which 
have hitherto stood very much in their way. They are, how- 
ever, daily occupying a position of increasing importance in 
the commercial world of India. 

There are a large number of Americans in Calcutta, and 
other parts of India, engaged in commercial and other pur- 
suits. They live on terms of perfect friendship and equality 
with the English, and it would be difficult to find a pleasanter 
or more hospitable set of men. During the recent disturb- 
ances in Bengal, the American residents in Calcutta formed 
themselves into a military body and offered their services to 
the Governor-General, which were most gratefully accepted 
by his lordship. As long as alarm continued, they shared the 
duty of their English friends, and kept with them alternate 
watch and watch. 

Having seen Calcutta pretty thoroughly, I began my prepa- 
rations for a trip up-country — a plan which I had formed in 
China, but as to the feasibility of which I had at first enter- 
tained great doubts. Until within a few years there were no 
great roads opened in India, but since the completion of the 
Grand Trunk Koad, which is fifteen hundred miles in length, 
from Calcutta to Peshawur, the extreme frontier station in the 
north-west, travelling has become comparatively rapid and 
easy. Under the old native rule, the roads were very few and 
bad. The only available conveyance was the palkee or palan- 
quin, which continued to be employed by Europeans down to 
quite recent times, and is still used on all the lines of travel 
except the Trunk Road. ISTothing can be more irksome than 
travelling in a palanquin, the confinement of which is intoler- 
able during the beat of the day, so that the traveller must 
rest all day, and travel only at night for the greater part of 
the year. The only other way of travelling in old times was 
what is called " marching," much slower, but infinitely plea- 
santer than the palkee. Before the establishment of dak- 
bungalows by government, " marching" was the only way of 
making any considerable journey, and as it is still much em- 
ployed when a whole family is on the move together, and by 



Calcutta. 



119 



the judges and other government officers in their ch'ciiits, I 
will describe the "march" of one of the officials as a specimen 
of this mode of locomotion. Every official in India has a 
number of tents, elephants, camels, &c., proportionate to the 
size of his estabhshment, always on hand. A day or two be- 
fore he starts on his circuit, he informs his head servant of his 
intention, who makes all the necessary preparations. On the 
morning of the day the magistrate and his family start on 
elephants at four in the morning, but as soon as it becomes 
light enough to see the road, they dismount and continue the 
journey, either on horseback or in a carriage, where the road 
permits. By half-past seven they have arrived at their resting- 
place for the day, and the sun is now so hot that they are glad 
to take shelter in a small "breakfast-tent," which they find 
ready pitched, where breakfast is served up by the servants, 
who have preceded them on foot. Meanwhile the house 
they have left has been entirely stripped. Every article, 
however bulky, of utility or comfort, has been removed, and 
brought on by camels or on ox-carts, so that by the time 
breakfast is finished, and a cheroot or hookah has been 
smoked, the large tents, which answer in number and size to 
the rooms of the house, have been furnished, and the trav- 
ellers have as comfortable a residence for the day as that 
which they have left. The encampment is generally set up 
in a top or grove, one of which is commonly to be found near 
the outskirts of every considerable native village. These 
t6ps are generally composed of mango trees, and offer a suf- 
ficient shade, even to the traveller who cannot afford the 
luxury of a tent. 

Both these modes of travelling, which, until within a few 
years, furnished the only means of proceeding up-country, 
were so slow, that had there been no other conveyances, 
I should have been obliged to give up my trip ; as the steam- 
boats up the Ganges are much slower than even the palanquin, 
and are, moreover, very uncertain in the length of their pas- 
sages. 

Fortunately, however, I found that companies had been 
established to run regular carriages along the whole extent of 



120 India. 

the Grand Trunk Road, or at least, so far as the bridges are 
completed. Transit by these conveyances I found to be 
rapid, comfortable, and economical; and the facihties which 
they offered determined me to go up-country, at least, as far 
as Delhi. 

There is yet one other way of travelling in India, to which 
I might have had recouise. I mean, the mail-cart, which is 
allowed to carry one traveller. These mail-carts are a square 
box, mounted on two wheels, and look very like the English 
dog-cart. They go along at ten or twelve miles an hour, 
stopping only to change horses; and for a few minutes, at 
each post-station. The seat is very hard, there is seldom any- 
thing in the way of a shade, only fifteen pounds of baggage 
can be carried, there is no rest, without waiting over a day ; 
and, what is worst of all, the carts are always breaking down 
from the imperfection of their construction, the speed at 
which they are driven, and the viciousness of the post-horses. 
Altogether, I suppose it is the most uncomfortable mode of 
travelling yet discovered. Few people ever go by it, unless 
they are very much j)i*essed for time. As for myself, I think 
it very unlikely that I should have had the pluck to face the 
fatigue, hunger, and exposure ; and I should probably never 
have visited the capital of the Moguls, if the mail-cart had 
been the only conveyance within my reach. 



CHAPTER XII. 



TO BENARES. 

Eailway to Kaneegunj — Indian Railways— Coal— A Dak-Garrhee— Dak Companies— ^The 
Eights of Horses — Leopards and Jackals — Ddk-Bungalows — Scenery — Comparison 
between Natives of India and China — Land-Tenure — Nullahs — People on the 
Road — Sahussuram — Two fine Tombs — A Dancing Cow — The village Zemindar — 
"Taking Leave" — Unsympathetic Character of Natives — Country between Sahussu- 
ram and Benares — Seroor. 

I LEFT Calcutta on the evening of the first of November, 
1856. Crossing the Hoogly to Howrah, I took the railway- 
to Raneegunj, a distance of 1 20 miles, which we accomplished 
in nine and a half hours. It was dark when we started, and 
before morning, we had passed the limits of lower Bengal. I 
have since regretted not taking a train by day, as the country 
which this road traverses is one of the few parts of India 
where much cultivation or natural luxuriance of vegetation is 
to be seen. The carriages were very comfortable, and divided 
into compartments, on the European plan. I enjoyed a com- 
fortable night's rest, the seats being arranged to draw out, 
and form a bed. 

This railway is to extend to Delhi, and probably in time, to 
some place on the Indus, as Mooltan. It is to connect at 
Agra with a proposed road to Bombay, and is one of a great 
net-work of railways projected to connect all the important 
points in India. The road had been in construction twelve 
years, when I was there, and only these 1 20 miles were com- 
pleted. Another section was nearly finished, but has been 
since that time much injured by the mutineers. In the Pre- 
sidencies of Bombay and Madras, not 200 miles of road alto- 
gether had been completed. It is now seen that it was a 
great error of Government, not to have pushed forward more 

6 



122 India. 

rapidly tlie completion of these great highways, since the 
facility of transporting troops on them would have done much 
for the prevention or suppression of the recent mutiny. In- 
dependently of the use of the railways in a military point of 
view, they would no doubt have been emmently successful 
financially, as the navigation of the Ganges is very dangerous, 
and precarious as regards time; and the transportation of 
merchandize on camels or ox-carts by the Grand Trunk Road, 
could never compete with a railway in time or expense. 
These railroads were the first great public work that the 
Government of India intrusted to private enterprize, and it 
was supposed that the advantages presented by the scheme 
were so great, that private capital would be readily furnished 
for then* completion, especially as Government guaranteed the 
stockholders a dividend of five per cent. It was found, how- 
ever, that the rich natives, from whom much of the money 
was expected, were very backward in contributing to an 
enterprize of a kind in which they had previously had no 
experience, and from which any immediate return beyond the 
five per cent, guaranteed, was doubtful. The idea of any 
great public work being accomplished by private capital, is 
something quite opposed to a native's habits of thought — if 
he has any spare money, he hesitates about investing it per- 
manently in land, or any other way, preferring to retain it in 
his own hands, and loan it to individuals on short time, and 
at a high rate of interest. In India, twelve per cent, a year 
can always be obtained, with the best security, and where the 
money is loaned to the poor ryuts by the month, at com- 
pound interest, and in sums of a few rupees, as is generally 
the practice of native bankers, the rate amounts to six or 
seven per cent, a month. 

Raneegunj, the present terminus of the railway, is situated 
at the foot of the Rajmahal hills, a low, irregular range, 
bounding lower Bengal on the west. It has but few Euro- 
pean residents, and they are all connected with the railway, 
dak companies, or coal mines. The coal obtained is of excel- 
lent quality, it is said, and if so, will supply a great want, as 
the Labuan coal is far from good. 



To Benares. 



123 



I had engaged at Calcutta my passage to Fiittehghur, by 
the " North Western Dak Company," one of the three staging 
companies, {dak being Hindoostanee for "staging,") which 
conveyed persons and light parcels up-country, along the line 
of the Grand Trunk Road. As soon as I arrived at Ranee- 
gunj, I went to see the vehicle in which I was to proceed to 
Benares. I found it a square-built, roughly-finished, but 
strong gdrrhee^ with patent axles, sliding doors, and a row of 
windows on both sides, shaded by Venetian awnings. The 
well^ where, in an ordinary carriage, we put our feet, was 
covered over, and appropriated to small parcels ; and a mat- 
trass extended the whole length of the vehicle. This is a 
most admirable arrangement for travelling a long time in 
a carriage, as lying down is, no doubt, the position which can 
be continued the longest time with the least fatigue ; and the 
convenience for sleeping is a matter of importance, where, as 
in India, it is customary to travel night and day, and in the 
hot weather, principally, if not solely, by night. 

The Grand Trunk Road is at present the great line of com- 
munication between all Northern, and North-Western India, 
and the coast. It is a broad, macadamized road, as well kept 
up as any in Europe, stretching in an unbroken line from Cal- 
cutta to Peshawur, at least 1,500 miles. The operations of 
these dak companies extend along the line of the Trunk Road 
and its branches, as far to the north-west as Umbala, (the first 
Punjab station,) beyond which point the bridges are not com- 
pleted. The branches of the Grand Trunk Road go to Luck- 
now, Futtehghur, and Moozufiurnuggur, beyond Meeruth. 
The construction of this great road is entirely the work of the 
English Government, the Ganges having been previously the 
only line of communication with the interior. 

The dak companies do not run their garrhees at any fixed 
time, but whenever they are engaged. The usual practice is, 
for one traveller to occupy a garrhee alone, but the expense 
and comfort are occasionally shared by two persons, who must 
be in rather close quarters when they lie down, as the interior 
of the carriage is not more than four feet wide, if so much. 
Each garrhee has a native coachman, who accompanies it for 



124 India. 

about sixty miles, and a sdees or groom, who is changed witk 
the horse, every six miles. 

I had heard a great deal about the dak horses, but the re- 
ality far exceeded my expectations. They are the most 
vicious and untamed set of brutes that it is possible to con- 
ceive as being made in any respect useful. The first specimen 
which I saw, made his appearance with eight or ten saeeses, 
tugging at a rope made fast to one of his fore legs ; the object 
of this was to move his leg forward, upon which, he, of his 
own accord, brought his body up to it. This mode of pro- 
gression is, as may be imagined, slow, although sure. It took 
about twenty minutes to get him into the shafts, and when 
made fast, he planted his fore-legs firmly apart, and again 
refused to move. The saeeses renewed their efforts, first try- 
ing mild measures, and calling the stubborn beast by every 
endearing name, among which were the sweet titles of 
"father," and "mother." As the brute, however, showed 
himself utterly insensible and unmoUified by the attributed 
honours of paternity ; and moreover, seemed determined at 
least to assume the parental privilege of chastisement by biting 
and kicking his swarthy and supposititious offspring, the 
original plan of dragging his foot forward was again resorted 
to, accompanied and aided by the united efforts of a dozen or 
more black fellows who pushed the garrhee behind. These 
efforts being persisted in for half a mile, and the coachman 
vigourously applying the chdbook (whip), our gallant steed 
at length was wearied with resistance, and, determining to 
free himself from his persecutors, and give up an unavaiHng 
struggle for the rights of horses, rushed off at a ten mile pace, 
which he kept up the whole stage. The next horse was 
quieter, but lame. Natives, however, have very httle of that 
quality which " is not strained," and the lame horse did his 
five or six miles in less time than his predecessor. The above 
performances, and practical lessons in the art of horse-break- 
ing, are generally repeated at every third or fourth stage. 
The only variety in the exercises is when you have a particu- 
larly pig-headed animal who lies down — the remedy for which 
amiable peculiarity is to Hght a straw fire under him. These 



To Benares. 123 

performances are at first amusing, but "familiarity breeds 
contempt," and their oft repetition causes them to pall. When 
one is in a hurry, they are particularly annoying, and I have 
often felt very like shooting some of these beasts, after an 
hour or so spent in endeavouring, by every gentle and violent 
means, to terminate an obstinate haulJc. 

It was nine o'clock before I left Raneegunj. Two officers 
left at the same time in another garrhee, but as their horse 
had lamed himself the night before, by falling into a ditch 
when chased by a leopard, I soon left them behind. India is 
so thinly populated a country, that there is an enormous num- 
ber of wild animals, even close to settlements. Everywhere, 
the jackals make night hideous with their dreary wolf like howl ; 
and in many parts of the road, even in the day-time, every 
one you meet, on foot or on horseback, is armed with a sabre, 
spear or halbert — whether against man or beast, I could not 
precisely make out, but probably a little for both, and a great 
deal " dekne kee wastee," i. e., "for show" — a phrase that ex- 
plains more than one thing in India. 

The country, after leaving Raneegunj, was an undulating 
common, but little cultivated or inhabited, and with but few 
trees. We arrived at two o'clock at Gyra dak-bungalow, 
where I stopped for dinner. These dak-bungalows are build- 
ings for the accommodation of travellers, erected by the 
liberality of Government, at fixed distances, on all the great 
roads in India. On the Grand Trunk Road, they are generally 
ten or twelve miles apart, but on the less frequented routes, 
the interval between one bungalow and another is often twenty 
or thirty miles. All dak-bungalows are of one build, and the 
size varies but little. They are generally about forty feet 
square, with walls ten or twelve feet high, a verandah running 
all around, and covered by a steep thatch or tile roof, the 
edges of which rest on the verandah wall, the ridge being 
twenty-five feet or more from the ground. There are in each, 
two suites of apartments, consisting of a parlour, dressing 
room and bath room — the latter a great advantage in a hot 
climate. Each bungalow has about a dozen servants, of whom 
only two or three are paid by Government — the others being 



1 26 India. 

dependent upon the traveller's generosity. Every traveller 
has a right to occupy one suite of rooms for 24 hours, and as 
much longer as they are unclaimed by a new arrival. These 
bungalows are not only a great convenience, but almost a 
necessity for a ddk traveller in India, where there are no ho- 
tels except in the largest stations, and where caste forbids the 
native to allow a Christian's food to be cooked in his house, 
or even to give him a drink of water from his cup. 

On arriving at the bungalow I was received with low 
salams by Khansahma^, Khitmutgra, and Beras, {Anglice, 
steward, waiter and valets,) and the Khansahmai»i asked what 
my honour would be pleased to order. I asked what could 
be had ; and was answered " anything !" On further inquiry, 
however, I discovered that the only choice was between fowl 
and duck, of which I preferred the former. A scampering 
and screaming of the feathered bipeds outside soon told me 
that my wishes were being carried out, and I made a good 
meal off. curry and rice, and grilled-fowl (commonly called 
"sudden death"). If there is anyone thing that a native 
can do well, it is cooking ; they all seem to be born with a 
natural talent for the culinary art — a talent practically devel- 
oped in most cases by the rules of caste, which oblige each 
man to cook for himself, unless he is rich enough to hire a 
Brahmun to do so for him. The servants in the dak-bunga- 
lows, except the bearers, are all Moosulmans, as no Hindoo 
will cook, or have anything to do with the eating of beef or 
fowls. The bungalow furniture consists of a native cotton 
floor-cover, a table, bed (with no mattrass), three chairs and a 
punkah, to each suite of rooms. The bath-room is about ten 
feet square, with a cement floor, and a ridge to prevent the 
water flowing into the next room. There is no regular bath, 
but instead, five or six earthen gurras of water, each holding 
about a gallon, which the traveller empties over his head. 

The charge for the use of the bungalow for three hours is 
eight annas (24 cents), for any longer time, one rupee per diem. 
During the hot weather, it is customary to spend nearly the 
whole day in the bungalow, travelling only at night, but for 
three or four months in the year it is quite cool enough to 



To Benares. 



127 



travel during the day, especially in a garrhee, the rapid mo- 
tion of which allevia»tes the discomfort of the heat. My habit 
was to stop t\Yice a day, once in the morning, when I bathed, 
dressed, and got breakfast, and again in the afternoon, when 
I took another bath and dined. 

I slept very comfortably in the garrhee, even the first 
night. The only annoyance was being waked up once or 
twice to pay toU, and once to give the customary bucksees of 
one rupee to the coachman, when he was reheved. I woke 
up the next morning refreshed by a good ten hours' sleep. 
On waking I found the scenery quite different from that of 
the day before — ^in fact, during this day I passed through 
three entirely different kinds of scenery. In the first place, 
we were among the Rajmahal hiUs, the passes in which, and 
the views of which were exactly like hundreds of similar 
scenes in any hilly part of the Northern States of America. 
Leaving these towards the afternoon, we came ujdou a plain 
where the cocoa-palm, the orange and plantain trees, and 
other similar objects, told of the richness of the soil, and the 
vivifying power of the tropical sun. And again, on the same 
plain, and between these fertile and cultivated oases (which 
were always situated around villages), there were tracts of 
uncultivated land, stretching for mile after mile, with no 
grass, no trees, no house, or even hut — nothing to tell of life 
but a few low scrub bushes, or a lot of vultm-es, sharing with 
the foul pariah-dogs the rotting carcase of some camel or buf- 
falo which had died upon the road. These pariah-dogs are 
miserable, unkempt, uncared-for brutes, devouring any filth 
that comes in their way, and making themselves useful in a 
humble walk as public scavengers ; during the recent mutiny 
they have had dainty fare, having been fed by the Sepoys 
upon the flesh of their mangled victims. 

The general neglect and want of cultivation, which meets 
the eye of the traveller everywhere in India, contrasts, as I 
have before said, most disadvantageously with the economy 
and thrift which are so remarkable in China. It is, however, 
necessary to bear in mind the very different incentives to 
labour in the two cases. The Chinese has a freehold property, 



128 India. 

and can always invest his savings profitably and safely (the 
principle of "limited liability" being, in China, carried to a 
greater extent than in any other country) ; or, if he has not a 
fi-eehold, he has always the privilege of retaining his farm at 
the same rent as long as it is paid punctually. The poor 
Indian ryut (cultivator) on the other hand, at least in Bengal, 
farms the soil on shares for the zemindar^ who hires many 
fanns direct from government. The rent which the ryut 
pays, in Bengal, is always exorbitant, and would be increased 
if the production became greater under good management. 
The Chinese, too, always have some information, and can read 
and write to a certain extent, and the greatest exertions are 
made by a whole family to supply funds for the education of 
any one of the younger members, who may have shown good 
intellectual powers, in the hope that he may pass creditably at 
the Public Sei'vice Examinations, and obtain a government 
appointment. No such hopes, no such motives, present them- 
selves to the Indian ryut — the bonds of caste, if nothing else, 
being sufficient to prevent any change of condition. In the 
last analysis, these results, so disadvantageous to the native 
of India as compared with the Chinese, are no doubt due to 
the difference of national character. The system of society, 
beyond a doubt, in one case fosters, in the other discourages, 
every effort. Still those systems are but the reflex of the 
national mind, and neither would long exist were the national 
character changed. The Chinese is active, industrious, enter- 
prizing, and independent — the native of India, idle, living 
only for the day, never wishing or hoping to change his con- 
dition, always irretrievably in debt, and never able to work 
without a master. The remarks above, on the land tenure, 
apply only to Bengal, where the land was leased by govern- 
ment, in perpetuity, to a number of large proprietors, who do 
undoubtedly, to a certain extent, demand unreasonable rents 
from the cultivators of the soil. This system was preferred 
by the English government in their early days, when the ex- 
tent of their possessions was still limited, as it was supposed 
that the existence of a large number of "landed gentry" 
would do much to consolidate their power, and would pre- 



To Benares. 



129 



serve at least one powerful class who had a great stake in the 
permanence of the English rule. As the dominions of the 
Company extended, and their sway became more unques- 
tioned, such precautions became unnecessary, and in all the 
North-western Provinces, the Punjab, and both the lesser 
Presidencies, a tenure of land has been introduced, which 
amounts in fact to hiring directly from government. The 
rent, which includes all direct taxes, is fixed every few years, 
with reference to the average production of the land, the 
price of corn and other products, and various modifying cir- 
cumstances, and varies, for the most productive lands from 
one eighth to one quarter of the proceeds. Now, if it be 
remembered that this tenure is in fact equivalent to " farming 
on shares," I think the proportion of the profits paid to the 
landlord will seem anything but exorbitant, especially as there 
are no direct taxes in addition. In the determination of the 
rent, the ryut is always heard and consulted, and the bargain 
between him and government is the same as between man 
and man in any country. Should he be dissatisfied with his 
assessment, he is at liberty to give up the land, and do what 
he pleases. This liberty, to be sure, is rather restricted, not 
only by the prohibitions of caste, but by the state of slavery 
to huniahs^ or native bankers, under which most of the popu- 
lation labour and toil. The agents of the Company, however, 
never take advantage of the necessities of a native, but always 
endeavour to give the land on desirable terms — it being the 
policy of government to encourage in every way the cultiva- 
tion of the soil, an occupation which is looked upon, by the 
natives, as about the lowest condition in life. It is, therefore, 
the aim of government to make farming a profitable, if not an 
honourable, career. Their efforts have been, however, quite 
unsuccessful. It might with reason have been expected that 
the condition of ryuts in the up-country would be superior to 
that of their fellows in Bengal, where the old zemindaree 
system obtained. No such difference, however is found to 
exist. The natives are so impacted in a mass of customs and 
prejudices, that the tilling of the land is all left to a class who 
have been so engaged from generation to generation, who are 

6* 



130 India. 

ignorant and lazy to a degree ; who cannot appreciate any 
improvements in agriculture — and if they could, would not 
have the means to adopt them ; who are so improvident as to 
be always completely in the power of their creditors ; and so 
idle, so spiritless, and so bound about by an iron prison of 
prejudice and caste, that any amelioration of their condition 
seems hopeless. I really believe that the lower classes would 
be more comfortable and happier under a mild system of 
serfdom ; while the soil would be cultivated as it has never 
been; millions of acres of prolific, but now unproductive, 
land would be made profitable; and, in the absence of 
native enterprise, encouragement would be given to the 
colonization of the country, and cultivation of the soU, by 
Europeans, who have hitherto been restrained and disheart- 
ened by the necessity for relying on the voluntary industry 
of the blacks. 

But to return from moralizing to the description of the 
second day's ride. We had to cross many nullahs^ as the 
beds of streams are called, and tiresome work enough it was, 
the bridges having been nearly all carried away during the 
rains. The streams had shrunk into small compass, and did 
not form much of an obstacle ; but the garrhee had to be 
dragged over hundreds of yards of soft sands, by the aid of 
coolees^ (a term used by Europeans to designate the lower 
classes of labourers in many parts of India and China). I put 
on as many coolees as could get a hand anywhere on the gar- 
rhee, but they are a wretchedly weak race, and hardly earn the 
paisa (f ct.) with which they are well satisfied, after tugging, 
straining, and shouting for twenty minutes or more. 

The groups that one passes on the road are motley and 
often very picturesque. Some tall, fine looking fellow with a 
fierce moustache, long lance and shield, will go by on horse- 
back, and next will follow a train of bullocks of burden, with 
panniers, going to market. The next people may be a train 
of fifty or more women, going to, or returning from labour — 
all with some bright coloured paint on the forehead, most 
with silver bangles on the arms, some with gold rings through 
the nose, but almost all carrying a baby a-straddle on the hip. 



To Benares. 131 

The coloured paint-marks indicate the deity to whom the 
wearer has, that morning, performed poojah ; the bangles are 
of solid silver or gold, generally worn by even the poorest 
classes, and are commonly heirlooms which are not parted 
with except on the direst necessity ; gold nose-rings, are not 
uncommon, nor do they look ill upon a pretty brown face. 
They are considered merely as ornaments, and are readily sold 
or changed by the wearers ; the babies are often three years 
old, it not being the custom in India to wean children much 
before that age — they sit, as I said, a-straddle on the mother's 
hip, and are supported by her arm. This is not a bad way to 
carry a child, but far inferior to the Chinese plan, which con- 
sists in strapping baby like a knapsack on his mamma's back, 
thus leaving both her hands at hberty. 

We may next see a long train of baggage camels, each one 
having his nose made fast to the tail of the one ahead; and an 
elephant may be the next object that meets the eye. Now 
we meet a hacJcuree^ or bullock-cart covered with a gaudy red 
tent, and containing a whole family with all their goods and 
chattels — and the next vehicle is perhaps a bailee, a smaller, 
two- wheeled conveyance, covered with a rich crimson awning, 
and drawn by a fine pair of little bullocks who will trot bravely 
off their five or six miles an hour, and kee^^ the pace up all 
day — the curtains are closed, and we guess that some rich 
lady is within, a supposition which is confirmed by the armed 
men who follow to guard the bailee. The mail-cart, shaped 
like a dog-cart, passes us in a trice, as their horse is going at 
ten miles an hour, and ours stops to look at a milestone or 
something else, just as we are getting him into a good pace. 
The mail-coachman blows a joyous blast on his bugle, and is 
lost in a cloud of dust. We in our turn, soon after pass in 
similar triumph an English travelling carriage, going at four 
miles an hour, drawn by coolees. 

On the morning of the third day, I woke up in what struck 
me as the prettiest scene, that I had beheld in India. It was 
the environs of the town of Sahussuram, and the clear morn- 
ing air and bright sun, made particularly charming, a picture 
that would at any time have been striking. As I caught sight 



132 India. 

of a fine mosque rising above the trees, I determined to stop 
for breakfast at the dak-bungalow, and visit the mosque, 
which was the first native building of any pretensions that I 
had seen since landing in India. All the way from Calcutta I 
had not seen a single mosque or Hindoo temple — ^I suppose 
because the villages were too miserably poor to afford any 
edifices of religion. I had expected that there would be more 
outward respect for religion in India than in China, but was 
astonished to find the reverse the case. The Chinese are, how- 
ever, doubtless, the most irreligious people in the world — all 
educated men being atheists of course, and on principle, while 
even the common people have only a very qualified respect 
for their idols. On the other hand I suppose, there is no 
nation in the world so utterly credulous, and so sunken in a 
debasing superstition, as are most of the inhabitants of India. 

I stopped at Sahussuram three hours, and visited the 
mosques, which were primarily tombs, and never intended as 
places of public worship. Their shape was that of the Arabian 
mosques, of which we see pictures in the books of travellers 
in Egypt and Syria ; the material, a light, red freestone, very 
fine grained and durable, the same as that of which all the fine 
buildings in Benares are constructed. Both of these mosques, 
like most other public monuments in India which are not actu- 
ally in use, were falling into decay. A native scarcely ever 
repairs his own house, much less a public edifice in which he 
takes only an indirect interest. The smaller of the two 
mosques was first visited. I ascended to the roof by a stair- 
case in the wall, which was elsewhere of solid masonry, and 
very thick. This mosque being in the town, was separated 
from the adjacent houses by a court yard, surrounded by 
cloisters, constituting a sural. It had formerly other buildings 
surrounding it, and particularly a large crypt under the court 
yard, but the crypt is now full of water, and of the other 
buildings, the sural (or free lodging house for pilgrims or 
travellers) alone remains in tolerable repair. The larger 
mosque is really a very striking building. Similar in design 
to the other, it is seen to great advantage, being situated on 
a stone platform in an artificial lake, perhaps 800 feet long by 



To Benares. 133 

500 broad. It is an octagon in form, each side being about 
60 feet long, with four mindrs (minarets) and a noble dome. 
The Chubootra, or platform, which supports it, is an artificial 
island, about 200 feet square, and faced with stone toward the 
water. It was formerly connected with the land by a stone 
bridge, but this has now nearly gone to ruin. The building 
is still very handsome, but when painted and gilded, as at 
first, must have been gorgeous in the glaring sun. 

On the way back from the mosques to the dak-bungalow, 
I saw a dancing cow, which I told them to make perfonn for 
me ; but they said she was too young and not sufficiently 
trained to amuse so great a lord as I. We passed through 
the village bazar, and here I noticed for the first time, the 
women covering their faces as I passed, a custom introduced 
by the Moosulmans, which does not obtain in lower Bengal, 
and is not universal anywhere in India. In this place too, I 
noticed some signs of a greater variety in dress, the rich green, 
red and yellow muslins of Hindoostan being intermingled with 
the universal white of Bengal. I met also one or two tall, 
wild-looking fellows, wrapped in shaggy blankets, with a bright 
coloured turban and long spear — a species of animal which is 
not seen further down the country. 

The village of Sahussuram, though the largest I had seen, 
is after all only a village, the houses being all of one story, 
and mere sheds, built of mud. At the doors of these dwellings 
the inhabitants were squatted industriously engaged in smok- 
ing the hookah. On the outskirts of the vUlage were one or 
two larger houses, built of stone — the residence of the zemin- 
dar, and a few others who were comfortably off. 

On my return to the dak-bungalow, I was accosted by the 
zemindar of the village, a mild-looking young Moosulman, 
who asked permission to come in and see me. This being 
granted, he sat down while I breakfasted. It soon came out 
that his object was to practise his EngUsh upon me. He pre- 
sented me with his card in Persian, and I gave him mine in 
English, and we kept up quite a conversation on the propriety 
of Moosulmans eating with Christians, which they refuse to do 
in India. He afterwards began begging for books, papers, <fec.. 



1 34 India. 

and offered to sell me his ring, when I became disgusted and 
dismissed him. His visit was rather longer than he intended 
it to be, from my ignorance of the Indian usage which forbids 
a visitor to depart until he has received permission from his 
host. I had been hoping he would go, and when he began 
begging, expressed my wishes to my servant, who advised 
me to say " Kookhsut hy," i. e., " There is permission to de- 
part," when he looked very grateful, put on his shoes, salamed, 
and left. This is a custom which it is somewhat hard for a 
stranger to learn, as it seems to us rude to turn away a guest. 
Some of our expressions, however, seem to point to its having 
once been usual in Europe, as, for instance, " to take leave" 
in English, and "prendre conge" or "donner conge" in 
French. 

Soon after leaving Sahussuram we came up with an old 
fellow on a camel. As he did not get out of our way quickly 
enough, my coachman gave him a cut with his whip-lash, 
which so discomposed him that he tumbled off his beast, and 
must, I fancy, have had a pretty heavy fall. I spoke to my 
servant about it, and told him to reprimand the coachman, but 
he seemed to consider it a most excellent joke. There seems 
to be no sympathy with suffering in the East. A man may 
die by the roadside, with hundreds of people passing him, not 
one of whom will take the least trouble for his relief. The 
parable of the " Good Samaritan" must come with great force 
to men thus constituted. Among Christians, however incon- 
sistent their general practice might be, no man could lie 
wounded and dying by a wayside, and not become the object 
of general attention and care. In India, on the other hand, 
were a Brahmun to touch such a person he would be defiled ; 
were any of a higher caste to touch his blood pollution would 
ensue ; so that both these classes would be forbidden to give 
relief by their religion itself ; and no one of his own or of a 
lower caste, not even his acquaintances, would probably think 
it worth while to interfere unless they hoped for some advan- 
tage by so doing. When I was going from Agra to Bombay, 
with a retinue of twenty bearers, it happened several times 
that men were taken ill, and left by the others to die on the 



To Benares. 



135 



road without a rupee to relieve even their immediate necessi- 
ties. I did not usually find such occurrences out till several 
days after, when a man would be missing when I counted the 
bearers ; the miserable rogues always concealing the fact of 
one of their number having given out, in order to get the 
wages which are his due, and divide them among themselves. 

After leaving Sahussuram the country is a flat, uninterest- 
ing plain, with hardly any trees, villages sparsely scattered, 
and cultivation in patches. We crossed the Ganges at mid- 
night, in a large scow, and at two o'clock on the morning of 
the 5t]i of November, arrived at the hotel in Seroor. 

Seroor is four miles from Benares, and is the military sta- 
tion of that city. It is just like Dum-Dum and all other can- 
tonments in India — the same broad roads, the same ugly, low- 
walled, one-storied bungalows with steep, high, thatched roofs, 
in desolate compounds ; the same hideous church, and the two 
stores. Seroor being a large station, and on the great route 
up-country, has two hotels, which are, like other Mofussil 
hotels, merely ordinary bungalows furnished by some native 
or half-caste on the chance of travellers requiring better ac 
commodations than they can get at the dak-bungalow. They 
will not accommodate more than seven or eight lodgers. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE HOLY CITT OF INDIA. 

The Sacred Apes — ^The City from the Eiver — The Observatory — Oriental Science — The 
Golden Temple — Sacred Bulls — The Great Devil — Hindooism — ^Tho Goddess of the 
BkuU-chaplet— Poojah— The Holy "Well— Self-Torture— Caste— Brahmunical Eegen- 
eration — Supremacy of the Sacred Caste. 

The city of Benares is the Jerusalem or Mecca of the Hin- 
doo ; nay, it has in his eyes a far greater sanctity than have 
either of those two holy places in the estimation of Christians 
or Moosulmans, for he believes that Benares is not founded 
on the tortoise which is the common support of the earth, but 
rests on the point of Seewa's trident ; that all who die in, or 
within nine miles of it, proceed directly to heaven ; and that 
the material and visible Benares is not so much a city, in se, 
as a shadow or ektype of the celestial city, the heavenly Be- 
nares. 

There are about 500,000 inhabitants in Benares, but the 
number cannot be exactly ascertained, as both Hindoos and 
Moosulmans regard it as impious to number the people — an 
opinion which seems to have prevailed among the Jews. 

Colonel Mowatt, the commandant at Dum-Dum, had given 
me a letter to Captain Waddy of Benares, asking him to show 
me all the sights, and let me have an elephant on which to go 
through the market-place. Captain Waddy had, however, 
unfortunately, gone to Deenapoor, and a humble garrhee had 
to be substituted for the majestic elephant. 

I engaged a young Armenian as guide, and we left the 
hotel at five in the morning, in order to be in time to see the 
bathers in the Ganges. A drive of three-quarters of an hour 
through a suburb of mud huts brought us to the river's edge, 
at the upper end of the city. On our way we passed what is 



The Holy City of India. 137 

called the " monkey-garden," an enclosure containing several 
temples and many hundred apes, sacred to Hooniman, the 
divine ape who conquered Ceylon for Rama. The apes are 
generally fine fat fellows, of a rich orange colour, and do not 
at all confine themselves to their enclosure, but range for a 
mile around, laying hands on all they can find. A Hindoo 
considers it a great honour and advantage if he can, by rich 
food and comfortable lodging, entice one of these animals to 
stay any length of time on his premises. The apes are very 
tame, as their sacred character protects them from all moles- 
tation. An Englishman was once drowned in the Ganges 
near Benares, for having ignorantly shot one of them. 

We embarked in a dingee on the Ganges, and commenced 
pulling down the river. The sun was about an hour high, and 
shone full on the long line of palaces, temples, and mosques, 
built on the edge of the cliff on which the city is situated. The 
opposite bank of the river is perfectly flat and unoccupied. 
From the summit of the cliff, which is about eighty feet above 
the river, a long and continuous line of broad stone steps leads 
down to the water's edge. Near the bottom the ghdt (steps) 
is broken by a broad platform, which serves as a thoroughfare, 
and gives accommodation to numerous small traders. From 
this platform jetties project into the river. At the further end 
of these jetties are graceful stone kiosks, sheltering some 
hideous idol before which a Brahmun may generally be seen 
performing poojah. 

The buildings which crown the cliff, and form the water 
fi'ont of the city, are all striking in appearance. The dwelling 
houses are always large, being the residences of rajahs, and 
other rich men who come to Benares to end their days, on 
account of the sanctity of the place. Like the ghats and 
temples, they are constructed of a fine light-coloured and 
durable freestone. The architecture varies somewhat, but the 
windows and doors are pointed — the former generally filled 
up with stone trellis-work, in lieu of glass. The mundras, or 
Hindoo temples form a striking feature in the coup d'oeil. 
They are never of large size, and are surrounded by an enclo- 
sure, above which are seen the pyramidal spires which form 



138 India. 

the distinguishing feature in Hindoo sacred architecture 
throughout India. The larger mundras have three spires, the 
smaller, only one. Each spire is commonly decorated by a 
number of smaller spires surrounding it in diminishing rows 
up to its summit, where it ends in a gilt ornament. Rarely, 
the whole spire is gilt. The musjeeds, or mosques in India, 
two or three of which are visible from the river, have always 
either one or three bulging Saracenic domes, and at each 
extremity, a tall, slim minar, surmounted by a kiosk, and 
relieved from the effects of unsupported height by one or two 
narrow galleries. 

As we rowed down the river the whole view was very 
striking, and came nearly up to what I had dreamed of Hin- 
doo splendour — a dream, in the reality of which, like many 
others, I was most miserably disappointed, and which found a 
satisfactory realization only in this view of Benares, and one 
or two other cities, which it was my good fortune to visit. 

The ghats of Benares are covered in the morning by mer- 
chants, offering their wares for sale, in the shade of immense 
gaudy umbrellas ; with men and women, dressing and undress- 
ing ; with barbers, fukheers, brahmuns, and water-carriers. 
While on the lower steps of the ghat, which reach into the 
water, thousands of both sexes are occupied in bathing, and 
washing their garments in the river. 

When it is recollected that the buildings above are a 
hundred feet or more long, and four or five stories high ; that 
the ghats are eighty feet in height, and are, in themselves, 
magnificent constructions of which any city might be proud ; 
that this row of palaces, temples, and ghats, extends for two 
miles along the river's bank, worthily terminated by the mus- 
jeed of Aurungzeeb, with its graceful minars, and that the 
whole scene was lighted up by an eastern sun, bringing 
out the gaudy colours of the dress of the- people, and the 
gilded ornaments of the mosques and temples, the reader 
may, perhaps, understand and pardon the enthusiasm excited 
in me by the splendid architectural effect of this river front, 
which cannot be parallelled or surpassed by any similar scene 
in India or in the world. 



The Holy City of India. 139 

After descending the river about half a mile, we landed at 
the observatory ghat, and went to view the building. It is 
of stone, about 200 feet square, and 50 high. Within are 
many small courts and apartments, once appropriated to sci- 
entific purposes, but now in ruins. The chief interest is on 
the flat roof, where there still remain several charts of the 
heavens on stone, and some of the instruments which were 
formerly used in astronomical observations. There is an im- 
mense stone sun-dial in the form of an arc, perhaps twenty 
feet in diameter ; a meridional wall of stone with two iron 
sights, besides several other arrangements which I did not 
understand, and piers and iron rings for the support of instru- 
ments which have been removed. This observatory is one of 
three, founded several hundred years ago, by Jai Singh, the 
Rajah of a Rajpootana State — the other two, were one at 
Delhi, and the other, at his own capital of Jaipoor. Hindoo 
astronomy is known to have made considerable progress long 
before the science was at all cultivated in Europe, but its 
study is now abandoned in favor of the more perfect systems 
of the West. It will scarcely be believed that so careful were 
the East India Company of all the religious feelings and pre- 
judices of their subjects, that for years after they had estab- 
lished schools for the natives, the old Hindoo systems of 
geography and astronomy, which represent the earth as sup- 
ported by a tortoise, the source of the Ganges as the centre 
of the world, and the sun as revolving daily around the earth, 
continued to be taught in colleges, to the support of which, 
the Company contributed. 

This observatory, like the other two which I have men- 
tioned, is now never used, and is fast falling into ruin, all 
except the solid walls. The revenues for its support are H])- 
propriated by the Brahmuns. 

Leaving the observatory, we again took boat, and landing a 
little lower down, ascended the ghat, and visited the golden 
temple, the principal mundra in the city. The road from the 
bank to the temple lay through narrow streets, having on each 
side large, lofty, and solid stone houses, looking rather gloomy, 
as there were few windows, and those small. The streets 



140 India. 

were filled with worshippers going to the temple, each having 
a small basket containing offerings of flowers, rice, &c. The 
sacred bulls which once filled the streets of Benares, are still 
inconveniently numerous and tame, but they are not treated 
with as much respect as formerly, and many hundreds had 
recently been seized by government and put to work. The 
temple consisted of a small square court, having around it a 
verandah, filled with stone images of bulls, before which many 
worshippers were making poojah. The bull is the most sacred 
animal in the Hindoo mythology ; he is called Nahadeo, or 
the little devil, and is the steed of Mahadeo (the great devil), 
which is one of the chief symbols under which the god 
Seewa is worshipped. A Hindoo considers the slaughter of a 
bull or cow, as a greater crime than parricide ; and in old 
times this offence was punished with death — a penalty that 
was long permitted to remain in force in some parts of India, 
by the Honourable Company, so fearful were they of seeming 
to interfere with the rehgious customs of the natives. In the 
centre of the court was the temple itself, raised several feet 
from the ground, upon a stone platform. It consisted of 
three rooms opening into one another, each not more than 
twelve feet square — ^the roofs rising into those pyramidal 
spires of which I have spoken before. The interior of these 
rooms was perfectly plain, but in each there was a Mahadeo — a 
stone cylinder, three feet or so high, and rounded at the top, 
rising from a basin sunk in the stone floor. The Mahadeo is the 
deification of the Ungam^ or creative principle, and as it is an 
emblem of Seewa, the destructive element in the Brahmunical 
trimoortee, it must typify the eternal origin of hfe from death 
— that is, if it has any such deep meaning at all. It answers 
to the Phallos and Priapus, and is, perhaps, only an Indian 
phase of that Phallic worship, which seems to have been so 
general in various places, in the earlier stages of religious 
development. The Mahadeo, say the Brahmuns, is the only 
idol which has an intrinsic sanctity ; the others must be con- 
secrated, but any conical stone or rude mound of earth will 
be a worthy representation of the god, and can be rightly 
worshipped. 



The Holy City of India. 141 

Speculators on Indian religion have made out the Brah- 
munical system to be one of the purest and most perfect that 
the world has ever seen, and we have derived from those 
theorists some very pretty and systematic notions about a 
Brahmunical Trimoortee, or Trinity, in which the Creative, 
Preserving and Destroying Powers were supposed exactly to 
counterbalance each other, and govern the universe in har- 
mony. Such may have been the doctrines of the early vedas, 
but, at the present day, the fact is, that, in theory, the whole 
religious system is the most confused, contradictory, beastly 
tissue of incredible fables ; in practice, it is even worse ; the 
Trimoortee is altogether ignored, and it is only a very learned 
pundit who would know that his religion presupposed such a 
thing. Brahma is never worshipped ; Vishnoo has some fol- 
lowers in the south; but Seewa and his wife Parbutee are 
the gods to whom most of the homage is paid. Seewa is 
always venerated in the Mahadeo ; but his wife Parbutee has 
numerous forms, each more repulsive than the other. As Kalee, 
in Bengal, she presides over self-torture, swinging suspended 
by hooks in the back, burning villages, and murdering the in- 
habitants, and other amusements, of which her followers are 
so fond ; as Bhowanee, in the centre of India, she is the mis- 
tress of the Thugs, in whose honour they drive their murder- 
ous trade, and whom the blood of a man slain for her sake is 
supposed to make smile for a thousand years ; as Devee, in 
the rest of India, she is the dread small-pox, which is so fear- 
ful a scourge among the natives. When one is taken ill of 
this disease, his friends say ''J)evee Nikala^'' "Devee has 
manifested herself," and it is considered impious to attempt to 
dislodge the goddess, or to burn the body which she has 
honoured by taking up her abode in it. In all these forms, 
Parbutee presides over every form of torture and horror — in- 
fanticide being one of her favourite failings. It was formerly 
customary to offer to her sacrifices of men and horses, but 
these have been discontinued since the introduction of the 
Company's rule. It must be remembered that this most 
amiable and attractive goddess is worshipped by about half 
the population of India, while the greater part of the other 



142 India. 

half worship her husband, Seewa, who is a deity of equally 
bad character, only his qualities are not developed in the same 
obtrusive hideousness. He is supposed, however, to be an 
accessory before the act in all that his wife does. 

The worship of the Mahadeo is very simple. It consists 
merely in putting upon the stone lingam, rice, flowers, bright- 
coloured powder, and some other things, which are then 
washed off by a stream of Ganges' water, poured by the 
attendant Brahmun, who keeps mumbling Sanscrit prayers. 
As each worshipper completes his offering, the Brahmun 
paints his forehead with certain stripes of bright-coloured 
paint, which show, during the whole day, to what deity the 
wearer has done poojah in the morning. 

The Golden Temple was crowded with naked devotees, 
sacred cows, begging Brahmuns, &c., and was a nasty, wet 
place. We had to give the priests a fee of a rupee apiece, in 
return for which they put a garland of flowers about our 
necks. This Mundra is the property of an hereditary cor- 
poration, and its income is said to be a lakh of rupees, or 
£ 1 0,000, a year. 

Leaving the court of the temple, we went into an adjacent 
enclosure, which contains the sacred well, into which flows the 
water that has been poured over the Mahadeo in the adjoin- 
ing temple. The well being a mere sink, is of course putrid, 
but is, notwithstanding, worshipped with great reverence. 
There is a stone platform around it, about fifty feet by forty, 
covered by a solid stone roof, supported on rows of columns. 
The temple which I have described was formerly on the other 
side of the well, on what was the most sacred spot in the 
world. The old location was, however, unfortunately defiled 
by that violent Moosulman, the Emperor Alum Geer, and the 
gods and temple were transferred to their present position. 
One of the goddesses, however, who inhabited the old temple, 
is said to have been dissatisfied with the change, and to have 
plunged down this well, where it is thought she still is. 

The platform around the well was filled with devotees and 
pilgrims — men of different races, dress, and appearance. There 
was one old Yogee (Hindoo religious mendicant), who, squat- 



The Holy City of India. 143 

ted on the ground, with his back to a column, and his hands 
on his knees, silent and motionless. He had made a vow 
never to move or speak, nor to eat, unless food was put in his 
mouth. By this process he had attained to great sanctity, 
but very poor condition. His head and body had been hber- 
ally anointed with cow-dung and Ganges-mud by some of his 
admirers, and I saw many persons salaming and making 
poojah to him, but no one seemed to feed the poor wretch. I 
gave a bystander a few anas, with which a most bountiful 
meal was purchased. The old fellow eat it with much appe- 
tite, but an expression of countenance which seemed to say, 
" I despise it while I enjoy it." In old times, this place was a 
great resort for these performers of self-imposed penances, 
of which we read so much in tracts ; but the practice of self- 
torture is gradually, but steadily, dying out in ISTortheru 
India. A great change having been effected by the abolition 
of the Churruk-poojah by government. This was a festival 
in which men were swung in the air, supported by iron hooks 
run under the muscles of the back. The performers used 
generally to intoxicate themselves by smoking bhung (the 
Cannabis Indica). We have all read in missionary tracts, 
of people throwing themselves under the Car of Juggurnath, 
of men with their limbs fixed in unnatural positions, the nails 
growing through their hands, &c., and suicide in the Ganges 
off Benares used to be committed by hundreds every year, 
who wished to die within the sacred influence of that holy 
city, and thus secure an immediate transition to eternal felicity. 
All these barbarous practices, however, are now fast disap- 
pearing; and suttees, with the various other forms of self- 
immolation, have long been prohibited and abolished by the 
Honourable Company. 

Both Hindooism and Mahommedanism would seem to be 
gradually breaking up in the Company's territories ; not that 
there has yet been any great impression produced upon the 
mass of the population, or that any better creed is being sub- 
stituted ; only there are numerous signs to show that neither 
of the old religions is in as vigourous a state as it was some 
years ago, or as Hindooism, at least, is still, in the dominions 



1 44 India. 

of some native princes. The musjeeds are mostly out of repair, 
and in many instances fast going to rain, except some of them 
which are kept np by government. The Moosulmans in India 
have long abandoned the purity of their old faith, and become 
more or less infected with Hindoo superstitions, and the 
great bulk of them rarely go to the mosques, or observe those 
daily prayers which are so striking to the traveller in other 
Moslem countries. Among the Hindoos the change is seen 
more in the gradually increasing disregard of caste. A few 
years ago a Brahmun would have been polluted for the day by 
the touch of a low-caste man, and would as soon have thought 
of wearing leather shoes, eating beef, or drinking spirits, as 
of killing his mother, eating her flesh, and drinking her blood. 
Now, however, patent leather pumps are very fashionable in 
the cities among them ; the higher classes, whose wealth and 
position enable them to despise public opinion, eat and drink 
what they like — especially the latter; and the pollution by 
touch, if remarked at all, is too inconvenient to be long re- 
membered. It must not be supposed, however, that this 
disregard of caste is yet at all general. Among the lower 
classes, that maxim, so general among oriental nations, that 
" that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man" is still uni- 
versally and scrupulously observed, and any deviation from 
the rules of caste is severely punished. Even those iUuminati, 
of whom I spoke above, are in many instances so hampered 
by the prejudices of their youth, that they would not eat at 
the same table with one of another caste or drink water from 
his cup. 

I had a little illustration of the inconveniences of caste 
before reaching Benares, after crossing the river Son. The 
coachman had left the carriage to get a fresh horse, and as he 
was rather long gone, I took up the bugle, which is carried 
by all dak-coachmen, to recall him. No sooner, however, had 
my lip touched it, than all the bystanders groaned in concert. 
I asked my servant what the matter was, and heard, in reply, 
that the coachman was a Brahmun, and would be unable 
henceforth to use the bugle without loss of caste, which, as 
he was a Brahmun, could not be regained. However it turned 



The Holy City of India. 145 

out that lie was a very low-caste Brahmun (for they, like all 
other castes, are broken up into subordinate ranks, according 
to greater or less purity of blood) and could be reinstated by 
the payment of a fine, in the shape of a feast to his friends ; 
so he finally made up his mind to blow the bugle, lose caste, 
and restore himself by standing treat, rather than have the 
greater expense of buying a new bugle. He would not 
touch his mouth to it, after all, without heating the mouth- 
piece in live coals, and scouring it with mud and cow-dung to 
purify it from the pollution of my lips. It may seem strange 
to some that a Brahmun should be coachman, but in fact they 
are found in all positions, and very commonly hire themselves 
out to natives as cooks, since the food which they prepare can 
be eaten by men of any caste. There are, however, a very 
large number, particularly among the higher castes of Brah- 
muns, who subsist wholly on their religious character — living 
on the charity and hospitality of one family after another. 
They are a very licentious race, and the customs of society 
give this tendency of theirs full swing, as, if a Brahmun leaves 
his shoes outside the door of a house into which he enters, it 
is unlawful for the owner of that house to enter until invited ; 
and again there can never be any scandal with respect to 
them since a Hindoo would rather die than say anything to 
the disadvantage of a Brahmun. In old times, slandering a 
Brahmun was punished by cutting out the tongue ; and death 
was the penalty for a blow given to one of the sacred caste. 
Of course these penalties have been inoperative since the 
government of the country by the Moosulmans, but the 
offences, which they were designed to prevent, are none the 
less rare. The dress of the Brahmuns does not differ from 
that of other natives, except that they all wear a piece of 
thread over the shoulder, falling to the hip, tied in a particu- 
lar knot. This thread is put on the young Brahmun when he 
is about nine years old. Certain religious acts are performed 
on this occasion, and he is acquainted with a certain mystic 
sentence called the gayootree^ which is in Sanscrit, and 
although now well known by foreigners, has at least half a 
dozen different translations. When all this is done, the novice 

1 



146 India. 

is said to be twice born. Under tlie Hindoo system of govern- 
ment, tlie Brahmnns occupied a position of superiority which 
is almost incredible. All the other castes existed only for 
their use and advantage. If a Soodra (or member of the 
great caste which comprises the mass of the population, and 
of which the present castes are only subdivisions) presumed to 
learn by heart any portion of the Shastras, the penalty was 
death ; if he only repeated a few of the sacred words without 
learning them, he was let off with a dose of boiling oil poured 
down his throat. The kilhng of a Soodra by a Brahmun was 
the pollution of a day ; a blow inflicted on a Brahmun by a 
Soodra, was, as before stated, a capital offence. These and 
other exorbitant privileges have been lost, both by the rise in 
importance of the lower castes, by the degeneracy and impure 
blood of the present race of Brahmuns, and especially by the 
effects of the Mahoramedan invasions which deposed them 
from their despotic pre-eminence. They are still, however, 
universally regarded by the Hindoos with a superstitious rev- 
erence, and are permitted to enjoy many privileges which 
they abuse. For instance, monogamy is the general rule 
among the Hindoos, except under peculiar circumstances, but 
the Brahmuns, and especially those of the high class called 
Kooleen, are allowed to marry several v/omen. A Kooleen 
Brahmun can have as many wives as he pleases, and fre- 
quently weds as many as fifty or even a hundred girls, for the 
sake of the dowries which the parents are willing to give to 
secure the honour of so hio-h-caste a husband for their dauo-h- 
ter. As these Kooleens are frequently poor, they have no 
home of their own, but stop with such of their Wives as they 
fancy — ^frequently never seeing the others after their nuptial 
day. This is, of itself, a fearful source of immorality, second 
only jDcrhaps to the Hindoo custom of prohibiting the remar- 
riage of widows. In some parts of India, the Brahmuns have 
attained a social position even higher than that assigned to 
them by the laws of Menoo, as they are looked upon as deities, 
and called by the same word which is used for a god. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

BENARES — CONCLUDED 

Religious Ablutions — Aurnngzceb's Mosque — Yie-w from Minar — Burning Ghat — 
Market Place — Hindoo College — "Native Gentlemen" — European Manners and 
Morals in India — Euins of a Boodbist Monastery — Gold Brocade — Opium. 

Leavixg the Golden Temple, we returned to the ghat, 
re-embarked in om* boat, and continued down the river. The 
ghats were still occupied by bathers, though the crowd was 
now not so great as earlier in the morning. Bathing in 
Ganges-water is a religious ceremony, which must be per- 
formed every morning, by all who live within any reasonable 
distance of that river. In case of persons who live more than 
twenty miles from the Ganges, the rule is so far relaxed as to 
allow them to bathe in any other river which may be more 
convenient. Next in sanctity to the Ganges, or Gunga as it is 
called by the natives, is the Nurbudda in Central India, which 
indeed is believed, by many of those who live on its banks, to 
be the Ganges itself, or to have a mysterious underground 
communication with it. Bathing being, as before remarked, 
a religious ceremony, is accompanied with prayers, joining of 
the hands, throwing up the water toward the sun, and nume- 
rous other rites. When the religious act is complete, the 
bather thoroughly washes every part of his person, scours his 
hair with mud, and cleanses his teeth with a piece of soft 
wood, which he has previously chewed into a brush, using 
the mud as tooth-powder. As this act is punctually j^erformed 
every morning by every Hindoo, they are in person perhaps 
the cleanest people in the world. After bathing they take ofi 
their clothing and wash it, frequently putting it on again 
without waitincr for it to drv. In Beno;al, oil is rubbed into 



148 India. 

the skin after the bath, hut in Hindoostan this is not custom- 
ary. Men and women bathe together promiscuously, but 
although all the clothing has to be removed in the water, 
they contrive to do so without any immodest exposure. 

We kept down the river, almost to the end of the town, 
and landed by the Musjeed of Aurungzeeb, where we landed 
and ascended the Ghat. The mosque itself is not a particu- 
larly handsome building, but the minars are very fine, rising 
to perhaps 150 feet above the ground, which is about 100 feet 
above the river. All mosques in India have one shape, which 
is distinct from the form usual in other Moosulman countries. 
They consist of an open portico, forming the western side of 
a court. The portico is the place of prayer, and is supported 
by a row of columns on the side which is open toward the 
court. The other two sides are walled in. In the middle of 
the western wall is a niche, the hibla^ which indicates the di- 
rection of Mecca. Close beside the kibla is a stone platform, 
raised a few feet from the pavement, on which the moolah^ or 
preacher, sits. All this is on the western side of the court. 
On the eastern side is the main gateway. The court itself is 
frequently occupied by worshippers, when there is a crowd. 
In the centre is generally a pool of water, for the purification 
which the Koran enjoins previous to prayer. At each ex- 
tremity of the colonnade dividing the open court from the 
portico, which has been described as the special place of 
prayer, is a minar. Every mosque has two. They are used 
as standing-places for the muezzins, who chaunt on their 
summits, certain Arabic verses which call the faithful to 
prayer. 

We ascended to the top of one of the minars of Aurung- 
zeeb's musjeed, from which we had a view of all the city, the 
river, and the country for miles around. In the town itself, 
there were no buildings which stood out very prominently, 
except the Hindoo college. The houses generally had flat roofs, 
and were larger than in other towns which I saw in India. 
The Ganges had a very deserted look — ^there being only one 
or two boats upon it. In China, such a river would be 



The Holy City of India. 14.9 

crowded with vessels. Such parts of the country as we could 
see were all barren juugul. 

Leaving the mosque, we again entered our boat, and re- 
turned a short distance up the river. We passed close to the 
" Burning Ghat," which I had not noticed as we went down, 
since we had kept in the centre of the stream. It was much 
like the corresponding establishment at Calcutta, and had 
quite as foul a smell, but there were not so many hurgilas to 
be seen. Two bodies were burning and two or three others, 
lying in the mud, wrapped in red muslin, awaiting incremation. 

Landing agam, we dismissed our boat and entered the gar- 
rhee. We passed through the chok, or market-place, and the 
Burra Bazar, or great street of shops. They were, neither ol 
them, very remarkable sights ; but, in the afternoon, when I 
visited them again, were crammed full of people buying and 
selling — so much so that I had to leave my carriage and make 
my way through the crowd as best I could on foot. I had 
cause to regret not having the elephant, with Avhich I should, 
no doubt, have been furnished, had Capt. Waddy been in 
Benares, as such an animated scene as the chok of a large 
Indian city, at high market time, is much better seen from a 
howdah than in any other way. 

We returned home by way of the Hindoo college, an ex- 
tensive establishment, built and supported by Government. 
The material is the same light free-stone, which is so generally 
employed in Benares ; the architecture, a sort of Indian Gothic, 
badly carried out. The tuition is free, and, as in all govern- 
ment schools, all mention of religion is carefully excluded. 
The school was not in session, the day being a Hindoo festival. 

My companion of the morning oflered to take me to see 
some Hindoos of eminence with whom he was acquainted — 
which I should have been glad to do — but he was afterwards 
prevented by business. Rich natives generally live in a very 
retired way, and foreigners do not get on intimate terms with 
them — they, are, however, very glad to have acquaintances 
among the English, and receive visits from them, and are 
much disposed to adopt English customs in exteriors. There 
is, in fact, no such thing as intimacy among the natives. They 



1 50 India. 

have no confidence in each other, and so there cannot be any 
friendship among them. Again, a native's home is in his 
zenana, among his women — a place of retirement into which 
his most intimate friends are not admitted ; so that any so- 
ciety, in our sense of the word, is, of com'se, impossible among 
them. The English, in India, have been censured for their 
haughty manner toward the higher class of natives, and the 
footing of inequality on which the latter mingled with the 
former. I do not think that they are open to this charge, to 
the extent which is supposed, as the Company always desired, 
and as far as possible enforced the utmost respect, in the man- 
ners of its servants towards all natives of respectability. For 
instance, there was an army regulation that the English offi- 
cers should always invite into the house any native officer 
who might call, and give him a chair. These native officers 
were men who could neither read nor write, and had no fur- 
ther training than a perfect knowledge of drill, being there- 
fore in education, as well as in character, infinitely inferior to 
the European sergeant who was required by the same regula- 
tions to stand up in the officer's presence. Besides even the 
best and highest classes of natives, were addicted to such low 
and foul vices, as our laws say cannot even be mentioned by 
any Christian man — ^how then were they fit companions to as- 
sociate with honourable gentlemen ? The manners of a native 
of standing, are as polished as those of the most refined no- 
bleman in Paris, perhaps even more so — ^his mind and his 
character, as foul and depraved as those of the most degraded 
outcast of that capital. 

I met at the hotel, in Seroor, a very intelligent and agree- 
able captain of infantry, from the North Western Provinces, 
going home on sick leave. He told me that he knew person- 
ally, Arnold, the author of "Oakfield," a work that produced 
much excitement in India, and made some, stir in England, 
and even in America. 

This officer told me that he could, as I can, understand how 
Arnold might have written the book in perfectly good faith, 
being a very quiet, religious, gentlemanly, highly-educated, 
but somewhat narrow-minded man ; while he yet contended, 



The Holy City of India. 151 

as I fully believe, that " Oakfield" was a great misrepresentation 
of the Indian army as it now exists. The fact is, that like 
" Uncle Tom's Cabin," the work was intended to satirize cer- 
tain individuals^ and both books were supposed both by their 
friends and foes to be meant as representations of the entire 
class to which these individuals belonged. Moreover, I heard 
on all hands, in India, that within ten or twelve years a great 
change for the better had come over the Company's service ; 
and if we go back to the times when the present generals 
were " griffins" or " griffs" (as they call cadets,) the alteration 
in manners is most essential. At that time India v/as so cut 
off from the rest of the world, and travelling from one part of 
the country to another so slow, that men were isolated, and 
became very like savages. Shut off from all communication 
with what was of general interest, and coming out too young 
to form literary tastes, (which even had they had, they could 
not have gratified,) they gave themselves up to playing, drink- 
ing, and other vices; generally kept native mistresses or 
wives, and for want of better society, associated familiarly 
with the sepoys, and their native officers; an association 
which shows the depth to which they must have sunk, and 
which must have tended to dras: them lower still. In old 
times, some Englishmen became so lowered in character under 
the influence of the heathen wives and companions among 
whom they lived, that instances have been known where they 
actually painted their faces, and performed poojah at the 
Ganges. N"owadays, the number of Europeans is very much 
increased ; their quality is improved, by which I mean, that 
they are men of higher cultivation before they leave England, 
and occupy a better standing in the society of that country 
than did their predecessors ; communication with home and 
different parts of India is rapid, and manners have undergone 
a very great change for the better. Perhaps, what did more 
than anything else to effect this desirable result, was the in- 
crease in the number of English ladies, who give a higher tone 
to society than it ever had before, and exclude from theii* 
cu'cle any man who has a native wife or mistress ; in addition 
to which, Government took the matter ujd, and any officer 



152 



India. 



who indulged himself in this respect, soon found that by so 
doing he lost the confidence of his -superiors, and diminished 
his chance of promotion. The result of all these causes was to 
produce on the whole a most satisfactory state of morality 
among the Indian officers, who all feel that the eyes of society 
and Government are constantly upon them, since one is never 
unaccompanied by servants in India, and every act is by them 
made a subject of conversation in the bazar, whence any 
scandal soon makes its way throughout the whole station. 

On the follomng day I went with the landlord of the hotel 
to see the remains of a large Boodhist establishment, about 
eight miles from Benares. This was formerly a great centre 
of Boodhism, and is described by contemporary Chinese trav- 
ellers in works which still exist. It was, however, entirely 
destroyed during the contests between the Boodhists and 
Brahmuns. The remains consist of ten or twelve acres of 
brick mounds, which have been recently cleared away in some 
places, showing the foundations, which are very thick. The 
buildings must have been both strong and lofty, judging from 
the quantity of bricks that remain. The only building stand- 
ing, is a sort of monument, bemg a round tower, perhaps, 60 
or 70 feet in diameter, and about the same in height ; it was 
once loftier, but the upper part has fallen to ruin. It is of 
stone, filled in sofid with brick, the stone coating alone being 
twelve feet thick. Each stone is numbered. The exterior of 
this tower is decorated with most elaborate carvings of fruit, 
geometrical forms, and numerous other designs. The work is 
very deep and sharp, and in some places still remains incom- 
plete. 

As we drove to these ruins, our road lay through fields of 
indigo and sugar-cane ; but the former had hardly sprung 
from the ground. 

In the afternoon, I visited a manufactory of the kinkob, or 
gold brocade, for which Benares is famous. The estabhsh- 
ment which I visited, although the largest in Benares, was all 
comprised in one small room, with an earthen floor. There 
vvere only four looms, which were placed close to the ground, 
the weaver sitting on the earth, in a little excavation. The 



The Holy City of India. . 153 

material of the kinkob is silk, and threads of pure gold. 
Being exclusively used for pa^ijama, the pieces are only 41 
yards long. It brings from 50 rupees to 150 rupees the piece. 
Benares is one of the great opium depots, the other being 
Patna. The Company's plantation is 87 miles from the city, 
but I did not care to visit it, as the poppy was not ripe. 
Opium is a Government monopoly in the east of India, and all 
private growers must sell their drug to the Company's agent 
at a fixed rate. In the west of India, however, that is to say, 
the Malwar country, private cultivators are allowed to sell to 
whom they will, only paying a duty to Government. 

7* 



CHAPTER XV. 

ALLAHABAD— "THE CITY OF GOD." 

Arrival at Allahabad — Zubburdustee — Seekhs — Ilindoostanees— Fort at Allahabad — An 
Invisible Eiver — Sooltan Khooshroo's Sural — Hindoostanoe "Wells — Allahabad to 
Cawnpoor— Bullock Trains— Elephantiasis. 

Leaving- Benares on the evening of the seventh of N'ovem- 
ber, I found myself next morning on the north bank of the 
Ganges, opposite the city of Allahabad, which is situated on a 
narrow tongue of land between the Jumna and Ganges, 
at their point of junction. The position of Allahabad is not 
unlike that of 'New York, excej)t that it is not an island. The 
fort, which is a large structure with high red stone walls, oc- 
cupies a j)osition corresponding to that of Castle Garden. 

The Ganges was low, not more than a mile wide, and it 
took us a couple of hours to push the garrhee across the 
sandy bed of the river, from which the water had receded. 
Arrived at the river's bank, I found that the bridge of boats 
which connects the city with the northern bank of the 
Ganges, had been opened to allow of the j)assage of some 
boats loaded with troops. 

Arrived at Allahabad, I put up at a tolerable hotel kept by 
a native, and drove in a buggy to the fort, to present a letter 
of introduction to Captain Russell, the Commandant. On the 
way I counted fifty-three native drays, employed compul- 
sorily by Government to aid in the preparations for the 
expected visit of the Commander-in-chief, the late General 
Anson, who was then on a tour of inspection. The Govern- 
ment in India take by force anything that is required for the 
public service, whether belonging to natives or English, pay- 
ing at a fixed rate, which is generally very fail*. This system 



Allahabad. i ^^ 

seems to us harsh and tyrannical, but has always been usual 
under previous Governments, who, however, seldom made any 
payment for what they took. The natives do not think this 
custom op23ressive, as they consider it the height of folly for 
any one to pay, w^hen he can avoid so doing ; and have alw^ays 
a tendency to appropriate their neighbour's goods and services 
zubburdustee (by force) whenever they have the power so to 
do. When we were going from Agra to Bombay, our follow- 
ers used constantly to steal vegetables growing in the fields ; 
take, by force, food from the bazar, and press the services of 
villagers as guides. We found it almost impossible to restrain 
them, or to convince them that there was any wi'ong in what 
they did. The aggrieved villagers used also to take things 
very coolly, so that it was only rarely that their dei^redations 
became known to us. 

Outside the fort a regiment of Seekhs were encamped. 
They are the best soldiers in India, and have proved them- 
selves the most reliable in the recent revolt. In appearance 
they w^ould be an honour to any army in the world. It is 
impossible to imagine a greater discrepancy than exists be- 
tween the proud, martial, rough-spoken Seekh, and the mild- 
looking commercial and courtly Bengalee. The difference in 
appearance, of the races who inhabit India, is even greater 
than between the different nations of Europe. The national 
peculiarities have been, I suppose, perpetuated by the institu- 
tion of castes. I was now regularly in Hindoostan, Benares 
being generally considered the boundary betw^een that coun- 
try and Bengal. The features of the people were more regu- 
lar and finely cut than lower down the country, but the com- 
plexion of the lower classes was very dark — in many cases 
quite black. The costume worn here was entirely different 
from that of Bengal, which consists of voluminous folds of 
pure white muslin wound gracefully around the body. In 
Hindoostan the men dress in a long, tight-fitting cassock, 
(chupkun) and pawjama or trowsers. I have before described 
this dress as worn by the Moosulman khitmutgras at Calcutta ; 
it was in fact introduced by the Mahommedan conquest, but 
has now become the general costume of Hindoostan. The 



1 ^6 India. 

Hindoos, however, do not wear pa?2Jama, but keep the dhotee, 
and theu' chupkuns open on the right breast instead of the 
left. The Hindoostanee women generally wear very tight 
pa?2Jama, and a scarf (saree) wound around the upper part of 
the body and over the head. The material of the dress of 
both sexes is bright-coloured calico. In cold weather the 
women often wear a thick blue or green petticoat over the 
pawjama. In Hindoostan men always wear turbans, which 
are small and generally bright-coloured, but in Bengal it is 
usual to go with the head quite uncovered. In cold weather 
the Hindoostanees wrap themselves in cotton quilts precisely 
resembling, in make and appearance, what we call " comforta- 
bles" in America. 

The fort at Allahabad is, as I have said, situated at the 
extremity of the town, at the junction of the Jumna and 
Ganges. It was an old native stronghold, but has been so 
entirely remodelled that the armoury alone bears any traces 
of its former masters. Captain RusseU, whom I found in his 
office, showed me aU over the place, which covers many acres 
of ground. I saw, among other things, a siege-train which 
had been got ready before the annexation of Oude, in case 
that any of the strongholds of the country should hold out. 
Under the fort are extensive catacombs, into which we pene- 
trated for some distance. They contain shrines of several 
gods, and two or three Mahadeos. There is also, in the court 
of the fort, a shaft of stone about fifty feet high, and covered 
with an inscription in one of the old languages of India. The 
kind of stone of which this pillar is made, shows that it must 
have been brought from an immense distance. Only two sim- 
ilar columns are known in India. 

I afterwards drove through the city, which is as large a 
place as Benares, but not so handsome. There are none of 
those fine brown-stone residences which I admired so much in 
Benares. The houses are all low and small, and in the Moo- 
sulman style of architecture, which prevails throughout Hin- 
doostan. 

AUahabad is considered by the Hindoos as one of the most 



Allahabad. 



157 



sacred localities, being a place where three rivers join.* 
Only two of these rivers, however, are visible ; the third is 
supposed to flow direct from heaven, and here, unseen by- 
mortal eyes, to add its celestial waters to those of the sacred 
Gunga. Inhere is a great religious festival held every year at 
this place, where the Brahmuns make an immense amount of 
money, since they have, as elsewhere, the entire control of the 
bathing ghat, and make all pay well for the privilege of wash- 
ing away their sins in the purifying waters of the Ganges. 
They have also the monopoly of shaving, which is very profit- 
able, as every one who is shaved at this fair gains a thousand 
years of Paradise for every hair removed. 

The principal sight at Allahabad, beside the fort, is the 
Sural and Gardens of Sooltan Kooshroo. They may have 
been founded by that monarch, who died seven hundred years 
ago, but certainly the present buildings are much more mod- 
ern. The sural is a quadrangle, about 500 feet square, sur- 
rounded by a high stone wall, against which are cloisters, 
aftbrding shelter to travellers, while their camels occupy the 
centre of the court. Every town, and most large villages, in 
India, have at least one of these surais, built either by some 
rich individual, or by government. They are always free to 
all comers. 

On one side of the sural is one of those noble gateways 
which form so striking a feature of Saracenic architecture. It 
is nearly sixty feet high, and about fifty feet deep, and leads 
to the gardens, which contain six or eight acres of land, and 
are well kept. At the further end of the garden are three 
tombs, raised over a j^rincess and two princes. The tombs 
are of stone, about forty feet square, surmounted by marble 
domes, and raised on stone chubootras, fifteen feet from the 
ground, so that their fine proportions are seen to great advan- 
tage. 

The public wells are among the prettiest objects in the towns 

* Its former name was Deeg, which, I believe, means " the junction" in 
Sanscrit. It was called Allahabad, or " the city of Allah," by the Moosulman 
invaders, who were much struck with its situation, and were very fond of 
changing the names of towns which they conquered. 



138 



India. 



and villages of Hindoostan. They are generally octagonal 
stone platforms, raised four or five feet from the ground, and 
approached by four flights of steps. Four stone columns over 
the well's mouth, support cross pieces from which the pulley 
is suspended. In Bengal no pulley is used at the wells. In 
the north of India generally the women draw and carry the 
water. The only men seen at the wells are the bheestees, a 
pecuhar caste whose occupation is to carry water in a goat's 
skin slung on their back. It is said that the constant pressure 
of the wet skin against the back, occasions the growth of a 
parasitic worm in the flesh, which occasionally causes death. 

Toward evening I took a drive through the cantonments, 
which are considered the prettiest in India — there being many 
nice roads to drive on, shaded by avenues of trees. We 
drove around the parade-ground, the road about which is 
called in all stations " the Mall," and is the favourite drive of 
the officers in the evening. We passed a large number of car- 
riages and buggies — the saeeses were generally running beside 
the horses, instead of seating themselves comfortably on the 
foot-board, as they do in Calcutta. Every station of course 
has its parade ground, which is always admirably adapted for 
the j)urpose, on account of the perfect flatness and barren- 
ness of most of the country in India. In fact almost any part 
of the country which is not cultivated, would do for a parade- 
ground. In this respect, India is, perhaps, the finest country 
in the world for military evolutions, and almost every part of 
it has been the scene of some bloody fight. 

I left Allahabad the same evening, and breakfasting the 
next morning at Futtehpoor, arrived in Cawnpoor by seven, 
in time for dinner at the hotel. The country through which 
I passed between Allahabad and Cawnpoor, was, as before, a 
perfectly dead level, with hardly any trees or vegetation to 
be seen. There was, however, rather more cultivation about 
the villages, and I noticed several large fields of maize and 
other grains. I saw no palm trees between Benares and 
Cawnpoor. 

During the day I passed an unusually large number of bul- 
lock trains. These are, as the name implies, trains of bullock- 



Allahabad. 



159 



drays. They belong to the various dak companies, and run 
the whole length of the Grand Trunk Road. The drays are 
built after European models, and are much superior to those 
of the native form. These bullock trains carry heavy goods, 
and also take native passengers, who are never very particu- 
lar about speed on a journey, or, for that matter, in anything 
else. 

After arriving at Benares I did not see any cases of ele- 
phantiasis — a disgusting disease which is very common in 
Bengal. It usually attacks one of the limbs, which swells 
enormously. I have often seen a very pretty girl ('' mulier 
formosa superue ") with a leg as thick as her body. I believe 
that death finally supervenes, perhaps from mortification of 
the affected limb. 



CHAPTER XVL 

CAWNPOOR TO LUGKNOW. 

The Station of Cawnpoor — Disorder in Oude— Cawnpoor to Lucknow — Elephants — 
Kaorees — Lucknow — Making Ice — The Weather — The Generosity of the Sovereign 
Company — My Man Brown — First View of Lncknow — A Moral — The Gate of Eome 
— The Taza — The Imambara — A fine Coup-d'oeil — Situation of Oude — Splendour of 
the Court — Indian Misgovernment — Indian Gentlemen — Extortion and Tortures — 
Lord Canning's Confiscation — Brutal Degradation of the Court — Eelations of the 
East India Company to the King of Oude— Yiolated Faith. 

I EEiviAiisrED at Cawnj)Oor over night, and on the morning 
of the tenth, started for Lucknow by a branch of the Grand 
Trunk Road. 

Cawnpoor was a large and important station, especially 
before the annexation of Oude, from which district it is sepa- 
rated by the river Ganges only. Oude was always a difficult 
kingdom to keep in order. Its population are mostly Rajpoot 
Hindoos — the governing class were Moosulmans of the sect 
called Sheeahs, who are considered by the orthodox Mahom- 
medans as no better than infidels. The Rajpoots are a mili- 
tary caste, and when not in actual service, have generally 
employed themselves in robbing, Thuggee, or some similar 
occupation. The government of the King at Lucknow had 
no influence or authority in the rural districts, and was only 
heard of when there were taxes to be raised — ^the collection of 
which generally required the presence of the King's army, and 
a pitched battle between the tax-payers and tax-gatherers. 
The warlike Rajpoots held their land by a species of feudal 
tenure, and in cases of fighting, gathered round their zemin- 
dar, who commonly lived in a fortified village, and seldom 
yielded to the authority of law without showing good fight. 
Some of these zemindars had large possessions, many follow- 
ers, and strongly fortified residences, and were almost inde- 
pendent of the King. When in want of money, they would 



Cawnpoor to Lucknow. 161 

organize predatory expeditions against their weaker neigh- 
bours, and slay, burn, torture and rob, until they had collected 
sufficient booty. When the exchequer of the King ran low, 
he used to send an army to one of these large villages, and 
demand of the zemindar either so many rupees or else so 
many bushels of ears. As the people did not like to part with 
their ears, and their leader was seldom inclined to shell out on 
a mere summons what he had gained with the red right hand, 
the result generally was a resort to arms, which in Oude was 
the prima as well as the ultima ratio of all disputants. 
In these conflicts, if the villagers were beaten, they were 
robbed, murdered, tortured, and frequently had their villages 
burnt down. If the king's troops had the worst of it, the vil- 
lagers j^ractised upon them the cruelties to which they them- 
selves would have been subjected had the result been different. 
All the native states of India are a prey to the worst kind of 
tyranny, and in none of them is there much security for life or 
property ; but in Oade, affairs were in a far worse state than 
under any other native government. There was absolutely 
no law outside of Lucknow ; and the country swarmed with 
gangs of robbers, and professional murderers, who took refuge 
there from the police of the Company's territories, and 
emerged on predatory expeditions whenever they could do so 
safely and profitably. The result of this unsettled condition 
of the country, was that agriculture, trade, and all settled 
occupations were interfered with ; large districts which were 
as fertile as any in India were allowed to become jungul, and 
tliere was a great and increasing emigration of the labouring 
and agricultural classes into the Comj^any's territories. It 
may be imagined that the existence in the midst of their states 
of such a community, independent of their power, was a con- 
tinual source of anxiety to the Company's government. The 
frontier stations were always on the alert, and of these Cawn- 
poor, as commanding the road to Lucknow, the only good 
road in the kingdom, was the strongest, and was always kept 
garrisoned by a large force. After the condition of Oude 
became such as was not only destructive of its o^vn prosper- 
ity, but seriously threatened the peace and security of the 



l62 India. 

adjacent possessions of the Company, the king was deposed 
and his territories annexed by the British government. Many 
of the troops, which had previously been stationed at Cawn- 
poor were then removed to Lucknow, so that the former sta- 
tion, had, at the j)eriod of my visit lost much of its old impor- 
tance. 

The ride from Cawnpoor to Lucknow occupied the whole 
day. The country was, as before, perfectly flat, and mostly 
jungul. Wherever it was cultivated, however, the crops in- 
dicated the fertile soil. The road led through two country 
bazars, enclosures separate from any village, surrounded by a 
high mud wall and closed by gates — a peculiar arrangement 
which I never saw elsewhere. On the road we passed several 
elephants carrying passengers — the first time that I had seen 
them so employed, though I had often seen them used for 
other purposes. The natives sit on a broad pad upon the ele- 
phant's back — the howdah being a European invention. The 
Mahoot rides, a-straddle, upon the elephant's neck, and guides 
him with a sharp iron pike, about two feet long. In " old 
Indian " times, elephants were much used throughout the 
country, both by natives and foreigners, but the English car- 
riage is now generally preferred as a conveyance, and ele- 
phants are not often seen far down the country. It is not, 
perhaps, generally known, that the elephant mil not breed in 
captivity — they must always be caught wild, and tamed. Their 
numbers must, therefore, be always limited, and, when I was 
in India, Government had bought up all the good ones and 
sent them to the Punjab, where they were needed for miUtary 
purposes. 

In describing the country, above, I have several times used 
the word "jungul" — a Hindoostanee term, meaning "wild" — 
and when applied to land, meaning simply " uncultivated ' — 
whether there is any vegetation or not. I think this exj^lana- 
tion necessary, as I have noticed that both in England and this 
country, "a jungle " is supposed to be a cane-brake or forest. 
It may be so, undoubtedly, but much of all the jungul in 
India has hardly a single tree or bush upon it. 

It was on the road between Cawnpoor and Lucknow that I 



Cawnpoor to Lucknow. 163 

first saw Jcaorees used as money. Their use is general 
throughout India, but it so happened that I had not before 
seen them. They are small but solid shells, of a purple colour, 
which are only found in certain streams. Their value is about 
one eighty-fifth of a cent. Nothing can be bought with a 
single Jcaoree, but the existence of so small a medium of ex- 
change, proves the cheapness of food. 

We reached Lucknow about eight o'clock, and drove 
through the town, on the far side of whicli the dak-bungalow 
is situated. I was surprised to find the whole city awake, the 
shops open and illuminated, and the streets crowded with 
people. It showed, at any rate, that I was no longer in Ben- 
gal, where the whole city would be asleep two hours after 
sunset. There was only light enough for me to see many 
large buildings, some tall mmars, and several fine gateways. 

We drove more than two miles through the streets of the 
city, crossed the river Goomtee on an iron bridge, and keeping 
on for about a mile, arrived at the dak-bungalow, which is on 
the outskirts of the cantonments. I found the dak-bungalow 
rather uncomfortable, having only been built since the country 
came into the Company's hands, but there was no hotel, so I 
had to make up my mind to it. The room where I slept had no 
window-sash, an article of furniture of which I felt the want 
very much, as it was now freezing every night, and I was the 
more sensitive to cold from having been so long in hot 
weather. Throughout Hindoostan it generally freezes in the 
night time for two or three months in the year. This has been 
taken advantage of, for several years past, by the Europeans, 
to obtain a supply of ice for the hot weather. The plan is, to 
expose water to the cold air, in very shallow pans, having a 
net at the bottom. The water freezes during the night, to the 
depth of about a quarter of an inch, and the sheet of ice is 
lifted out in the morning, by help of the net, and carefully 
packed in an ice-house. Though the weather is so cool at 
night, and though even in the day-time one feels chilly within 
doors or in the shade, yet so hot is the sun, and so powerful 
are its rays, that it is quite unsafe to expose the head without 
the protection of a thick turban — or, as it is always called in 



164 India. 

India, pugree. During the cold weather I generally found it 
necessary to wear flannel clothes, and even an overcoat in- 
doors ; but 'when I went out I put on a thin alpaca coat, 
taking care, however, not to expose my body to the sun's rays, 
and whiding around my felt hat more yards of fine Dacca mus- 
lin, than a novice would believe it possible to arrange in a 
convenient and even graceful and picturesque pugree. 

After I had eaten a curry and drank a bottle of beer, I 
dispatched my letter of introduction to the mihtary Secretary 
of Government, Captain F. Hayes, and then heapmg upon the 
charpoy (low native bedstead) all the shawls and coats I could 
find, got a better night's rest than could have been expected, 
considering the cold, and that as the Khan sahma^z told me. 
much to my disgust, " Sircar, Koompanee, Bahadur kee Suk- 
hawutne bichona koee nuheei^^ diya hy." (The generosity 
of the sovereign warrior company has not provided any bed- 
clothes.) I had, by this time, picked up a good many words 
of the Hindoostanee, and was beginning to be able, by the 
help of a pocket dictionary, to dispense sometimes with the 
assistance of my servant, as interpreter, in which capacity he 
was not of so much use as I had expected, being often too 
stupid to understand my questions. He was a half-caste, 
and had a most peculiar character. He was awfully lazy, very 
extravagant, and generally stupid, but yet he was sometimes 
sharp enough, and once extricated me cleverly from a trouble- 
some predicament in which I had put myself by beating a 
moonshee (native clerk and agent) of the dak company, who 
filled some small office under the government. 

Brown (my servant) used to take advantage of the delicate 
distinctions in the construction of the Hindoostanee sentence, 
to use forms in his conversation with natives which implied an 
equality in position between him and me. As soon as I began 
to understand the lingo, however, I j)ut a stop to that. When 
I bought anything, he invariably exacted from the seller the 
dustooree of six per cent,, which is always allowed in India, 
but he never kept the money for himself, giving it away to 
the servants at the dak-bungalows, or wherever we were 
staying. He could never understand the difference between 



Cawnpoor to Lucknow. 165 

numbers. One day he told me that, during the Doorga Poojah 
at Calcutta, his uncle and he had driven out of town a hun- 
dred miles, and taken tiffin at some place of public resort. I 
asked him how long it had taken him to drive out. He said, 
"two hours,?' without seeming to remark any discrepancy 
between his two statements, and it was a long time before I 
could show him by the rate of our travelHng that the distance 
could not have been as great as he supposed. At last he was 
convinced, and said, without the least confusion, " Ah ! then, 
sir, it must have been ten miles." One day we were talking 
about castes, and he told me that all the Khitmutgras in Cal- 
cutta were Christians. I was surprised to hear this, and asked 
him to what Church they belonged. " Oh, sir," he replied, 
" they do not belong to any Church, but they will all eat 
jDork and drink brandy." Like all the natives, Brown seemed 
very insensible to the cold weather. He dressed in Alpaca 
clothes, and as he slej^t on the roof of the garrhee, without 
any covering, while we were travelling, I feared that he might 
suffer from the severity of the weather, and bought him a 
thick blanket. The next morning I asked him if he had found 
the blanket comfortable. " Very, sir," he replied ; " I used 
it for a pillow." He used to lie, of course, as all natives do, 
but I expected that, and did not mind it. He remained with 
me until I arrived at Agra, when he left my service, returned to 
Delhi, and got emj^loyment in the office of the " Delhi Gazette," 
an Enghsh newsj^aper pubUshed in that city. At the massacre 
of the Christians, he was one of the few who escaped, and 
curiously enough, his safety was reported in the very mail 
which brought the first news of the mutiny, and his name 
was printed in all the newspapers in Europe, when the fate of so 
many more important people was a question of doubt and 
anxiety for weeks after. 

Next morning I sent for a buggy to drive to tlie city. Just 
as I was starting, a chuprassee, or messenger, from Captain 
Hayes, arrived on a fast camel, with a letter from him inviting 
me to dinner, and promising me his advice and assistance in 
seemg the city on the following day — both of which offers I 
was happy to accept. After sending back the chuprassee, 



l66 India. 

1 entered the buggy and drove to the town — about one 
mile off. 

On crossing the iron bridge over the Goomtee, the view 
before me astonished even more than it delighted me. I knew, 
beforehand, that the city of Lucknow was a place of over two 
hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, that it had been for 
years the capital of the most fertile portion of the Ganges 
valley, and that, until within some months of my visit, it had 
been the seat of the most considerable and splendid native 
court in India ; still I had been so much disappointed by all 
the native towns which I had seen (except Benares, the archi- 
tectural features of which are quite peculiar to itself and dif- 
ferent from those of all other towns in India) that I was 
wholly unprepared for the magnificent coup cVceil which pre- 
sented itself to me on the further bank of the river. The 
city, which extends for several miles along the bank, seemed 
one mass of majestic and beautiful buildings, of dazzling 
whiteness, crowned with domes of burnished gold, while 
scores of minars, many of them very high, lent to the scene 
that airy grace for which they are so famous. The whole 
picture was like a dream of fairy land. I stopped the horse 
and gazed upon the view for a few minutes with unalloyed 
pleasure. Here, at last, I thought, I have come upon some 
real " Oriental magnificence" — ^this place will give me a vivid 
idea of the proud state of the Emperors of Delhi. True, the 
princes who built these mighty palaces no longer inhabit 
them ; they no longer worship Allah in these glorious temples 
which they have reared as grand tributes to the supremacy 
of a pure monotheism ; but still their buildings bear witness 
to their mightiness and wealth, and even if their strength was 
used in tyi-anny, and their riches gained by extortion, yet this 
employment of their power and money in promoting art and 
beauty, gives us a lurking feeling of regret that Justice should 
demand the utter abolition of the Moslem's rule. 

A nearer view of these buildings, however, destroys all the 
illusion. The "lamp of Truth" burnt but dimly for the archi- 
tects of Lucknow. You find, on examination, that the white 
colour of the buildings, which presented in the sunlight the 



Cawnpoor to Lucknow. 167 

effect of the purest marble, is simply white-wash. The mate- 
rial of the buildings themselves is stuccoed brick ; and your 
taste is shocked by the discovery, that the gilded domes, of 
perfect shape, and apparently massive construction, which so 
much attracted your admiration, are merely thin shells of 
wood, in many places rotten. Everywhere you discover traces 
of disorder and want of repair. You come, at last, to the 
conclusion, that the whole thing is a gigantic sham, and, 
perhaps, think as I did, when recollecting my first impressions 
upon the further bank of the Goomtee, that the architecture 
of Lucknow is no bad type of the native rule, and the native 
character generally — very prepossessing loTien seen and judged 
from heyond the water. 

I drove through the city to the Imambara, the principal 
mosque of the place. The streets were, as usual, narrow and 
crowded ; the houses, as in all towns where the Moosulman 
influence prevails in the architecture, low and mean. This 
circumstance increases greatly the apparent height of the 
principal buildings, and to it they owe much of their ef- 
fect. 

After threading these narrow streets for half a mile or so, 
we passed through a great gateway, and entered an open 
paved square used as a market, and having on one side, a 
large but deserted and dingy-looking palace. At the further 
end of this square, was another gateway, the Room-ee-Dur- 
wazu'''' — the most magnificent structure of the kind I had 
seen. Passing through it we entered another square, similar 
to the first, but larger. It was also surrounded by several 
mosques, of which, by far the finest and most conspicuous, 
was the Imambara, on the left. These Imambaras are build- 
ings pecuhar to the Sheeah sect of Moosulmans, who differ 
from the orthodox Mahommedans, or Sconces, in permitting 



"'• This means, literally, " The Gate of Rome." Rome being the name bj 
which the natives of India know Constantinople, eyenr at the present day, aa 
it was the name applied to it as long as the "Eastern Empire" lasted. Tho 
gates of large native cities are usually called ostentatiously after tho principal 
places in tlio direction of which they lie. 



] 68 India. 

the use of images in worship. The original spht between the 
rival sects, I believe was occasioned by disputes about the 
the succession to the office of Caliph. However that may be, 
they are now divided, also, on doctrinal points, and look upon 
one another as no better than unbelievers. Constantinople 
has always been the head quarters of the Soonees, Persia of 
the Sheeahs. In India, the Moosulmans of Delhi were Soonees, 
while those of Lucknow professed the Persian faith. The 
Sheeahs venerate the two brothers, Hiissun and Hoosen, al- 
most as much as they do Mahommed, and keep each year a 
season of fasting and mourning in memory of their death. 
The fast, the moTviiTTumj^ terminates by a grand procession, 
called the Taza, in which effigies of the prophet's winged 
horse, several angels, the two Imams, and other figures and 
representations of sacred objects are carried in procession 
amid the blaze of fireworks, and the lamentations of true be- 
lievers over the untimely death of the two great brothers. 
The images and other objects carried in these processions are 
often made of precious metals, and being of great value, are, 
when not needed, deposited in a mosque, called the Imambara. 
The Lucknow Imambara consists of two courts, rising with a 
steep ascent, one above the other. Each of these courts is 
entered by a noble archway, and is, I should think, two hun- 
dred feet square. At the extremity of the furthest is a great 
gallery, perhaps sixty feet high, under which are ke|)t the 
sacred images described above. JSTotwithstanding their value, 
they are yery ugly. This portico is a curious combination of 
a sacristy, garde-rohe^ and cemetery. It contains the tombs 
of two or three members of the royal family, which are cov- 
ered with showy and expensive tabernacles of silver and 
precious stones ; and is, besides employed as a store-house of 
the more valuable curiosities collected by the various kings. 
There were a number of chandeliers, a blue glass tiger, a 
great throne plated with silver, royal standards embroidered 
with gold and precious stones, and other heterogeneous objects 
— altogether, a collection of great value, but showing the 
most barbarous taste. The two courts of the Imambara are 
laid out as gardens, and on one side of the upper court is a 



Cawnpoor to Lucknow. 169 

large mosque, built at right angles with the portico described 
above. 

On leaving the Imambara, I visited several other mosques 
of great size. Their architecture left but little to desire, but 
the inferiority of the materials employed in their construction, 
and the general want of repair, were painfully evident. I also 
went to see the old Imambara, at no great distance from the 
new edifice of the same name. Its general arrangement is 
similar to that of the new one, but its size is greater, and it 
includes a college and other buildings. It is with reference 
to this building, that Bishop Heber says, " taken in conjunc- 
tion with the Room-ee-Durwazu which adjoins it, I have 
never seen an architectural view which pleased me more from 
its richness and variety, as well as the j^roportions and good 
taste of its principal features. The details a good deal resem- 
ble those of Eaton, the Earl of Grosvenor's seat in Cheshire, 
but the extent is much greater, and the parts larger. On the 
whole, it is, perhaps, most like the Kremlin ; but, both in 
splendour and taste, my old favourite falls far short of it." 
Since the construction of the new Imambara the old building 
is deserted, and its courts are used as a Sural. The walls are 
almost black with mould, and it sadly needs a coat of white- 
w^ash. 

After viewing these mosques, I drove my buggy through 
the market-squares around which they are situated. The 
day was now so far advanced that the squares, which, in 
the morning were almost deserted, were thickly crowded with 
tradesmen and others. The sj)acious market-place, the gay 
dress of the inhabitants, the beautiful outline of the mosques, 
and the dark mass of the old Imambara and Palace, made a 
scene which I shall not soon forget, and not the least part of 
which was that noble structure, the Room-ee-Durwazu, sepa- 
rating the two squares. The material of which it is built, is, 
to be sure, defective, and the details are liable to criticism, 
but in size, grace, and the beauty of the general design, I 
do not believe that it is surj^assed by any gateway in the 
world. 

I returned to the dak-bungalow, as it was becoming late, 

8 



1 yo India. 

and, after dressing, drove to the residence of Captain Hayes, 
for dinner. His bungalow was soraewliat larger than these 
buildings generally are, and was built with a slight regard for 
taste, but in other respects was similar to all others I have 
seen, having no second story, the walls being low, and the 
thatched roof high and steep. Mrs. Hayes had also some 
flowers in the compound, and a little grass-plat, which were 
great curiosities ; and they had even gone so far in innovation 
as to make a bold, although only partially successful attempt 
at a kitchen-garden behind the house. 

Captain Hayes was the Military Secretary to the chief com- 
missioner of Oude, and had, at the time, almost the whole 
administration in his hands, as his colleague, the Civil Secre- 
tary, was absent. The two together formed the ministry of 
the commissioner, who is charged with the supreme govern- 
ment of the province. It will be seen, therefore, that Captain 
Hayes' duties, in the absence of the other Secretary, were not 
light, as they amounted in fact to the Legislative, Executive, 
and Judicial oversight of a population of six millions. He and 
Mrs. Hayes were among the most agreeable people whom I 
met in India, and disposed to do everything in their power to 
make my stay pleasant. They pressed me to remain some time 
with them, but I was so hurried that I could only afford one 
more day at Lucknow, and was forced to refuse their hospi- 
table invitation. Captain Hayes was one of the most tho- 
rough gentlemen I ever met, and, what is rare in India, a very 
accomplished scholar. He was a Master of Arts of Oxford ; 
and, in addition to his heavy duties, made it a point to devote 
a portion of every day to study. In this way he had acquired 
about thirteen different languages — including Russian and the 
Oriental tongues. His knowledge of the latter was of the 
greatest advantage in his governmental capacity. Being 
thoroughly acquainted with the j^eople and government, I 
found his conversation most instructive, and the information 
which he gave me was of the greatest advantage in enabling 
me to form correct opinions. He told me that I had lost a 
great deal by coming to Lucknow since the dethronement of 
the king — as th^ capital was formerly the residence of a host 



Cawnpoor to Lucknow. 171 

of nobles who lived in the most magnificent style, going about 
gorgeously dressed, seated in splendid hoicdahs on the backs 
of elephants, and accompanied by troops of followers — the 
whole presenting such a scene of real Oriental magnificence 
as is now to be found only in books — Oude being the last very 
large native Court that remained. The king of Oude, he told 
me, was nearly indej^endent ; at least, the amount of control 
exercised over him by the resident agent of the Company, 
was entirely dependent upon the personal character of the 
man. 

Captain Hayes gave me a most lively picture of the tyranny 
and disorder which prevailed under the royal government. 
The king's power scarcely extended outside the city walls. 
Beyond that his orders met with obedience when the army 
was present to enforce them. Taxes were seldom collected 
without a fight, since the people knew that if they paid with- 
out opposition, the collectors would pocket the money, and 
then, reporting to head-quarters that they had been unable to 
collect the tax, would come again, reinforced by troops, and 
make the unfortunate villagers pay over again. The cultiva- 
tors were completely at the mercy of their feudal landlords, 
who took from them all they could spare. What portions of 
their property they could not spare, they were relieved of by 
some adjacent landlord who had not been able to squeeze 
enough out of his own tenants, and resorted to predatory 
excursions upon the villages of his weaker neighbours. Should 
the wretched ryuts still save something from these harpies, the 
chances were that it would fall into the hands of the author- 
ized agents of government, or be forcibly carried off by the 
bands of organized dukoits whom the lawless state of Oude 
attracted from the adjacent territories of the Company. The 
administration of justice was of course a mere farce — the man 
with the fullest purse being, as in most Eastern countries, 
nearly sure of his cause. 

Misgovernment among an Eastern nation is quite a differ- 
ent thing from anything that has ever existed in the West, 
and the disorganization of society in Oude is almost incredible 
to a European. In Oude, rapine and murder, ferocious era- 



1 72 India. 

eity and abominable lust were common as the air. Assassina- 
tion was not only raised to a doctrine but solidified into ac 
institution. Female infanticide, in its most horrible form, 
was almost universal. In fact a large number of the inhabi- 
tants formed, what a European can hardly imagine, a nation 
of banditti. These men, whose hands were red with blood, 
and whose minds were blackened by the practice of the most 
loathsome vices, were at the same time persons of bland exte- 
rior and polished manners, and some of them associated freely 
with Europeans, by whom they were regarded as fine speci- 
mens of advanced native intelligence. 

The awful cruelties and atrocious crimes committed by these 
men, especially in their predatory excursions into each other's 
territories, surpassed the most horrible outrages during the 
recent mutiny, and show that those acts of appalling horror 
which concentrated on this rebellion the execration of man- 
kind, were far from being unparallelled, and were, in fact, the 
ordinary practices and every-day occurrences in the kingdom 
of Oude before its annexation. 

One of these gentlemen^ Dursun Singh, marched into the 
country of an adjacent Rajah who was temporarily absent. 
His fort surrendered, and his followers obtained leave to depart 
freely on giving up all their property. They crossed to a 
small island in the river, and there intended to await the 
departure of their invader ; but no sooner had Dursun seen 
them collected into one spot than he opened his guns upon 
them and killed between one and two hundred — the rest fled. 
The son of Dursun, who was charged with collecting the reve- 
nue of a large district, so ruined the country under his care, 
that whereas it once supplied grain to all the adjacent coun- 
try, after a few years of his management it had to import corn 
from Lucknow and even from Cawnpoor. In an incursion 
made by one of these individuals, as late as the year 1 846, he 
drove off two thousand prisoners and eighty thousand animals. 
On the road pregnant women were beaten by the troops with 
bludgeons and muskets, and many of them gave premature 
birth to children. When the troops came to a halt the prison- 
ers were paraded and tortured with all the helHsh ingenuity 



Cawnpoor to Lucknow. 173 

of Orientals. Their sufferings, which included the public dis- 
honour of women and such bestial cruelties as cannot be 
named, served as a mid-day recreation for their captors. The 
commander smiled, and the soldiers danced with delight as 
they elicited screams from their victims. Another of these 
model governors made war on his own brother, and when he 
had taken him prisoner, cut off his head with his own hands, 
and that, too, in violation of a solemn oath that his life should 
be spared. Buksh Ali, who passed sometime at Cawnpoor, 
associating on terms of intimacy with the European residents 
of the station, was considered a very fine specimen of a native 
gentleman. Yet his origin and his life were equally degraded. 
He was originally a drummer for a nach-girl. Having obtained 
admittance to court in this capacity, he became a favourite, 
and a large district was assigned to him. His" territories soon 
became the most lawless in Oude. Not a day passed but 
some new act of cruelty and oppression occurred, and his 
seraglio was filled with girls kidnapped from the country 
around. Another famous character was Juggurnath Chu- 
prassee. He and his five brothers were the terror of the coun- 
try. They headed large bands of soldiers and joined harmo- 
niously in the work of devastation. Juggurnath, however, 
wished to have all the pickings to himself, and with his own 
hands killed two of his brothers. A third was shot in a foray. 
The remaining two set up independently of each other and of 
their elder brother, and the miserable cultivators had thence- 
forth three bands of plunderers instead of one only. 

The tortures and barbarities employed by these wretches 
for the purpose of extorting money are almost incredible in 
their atrocity. Women were stripped naked and had boiling- 
oil poured over their skins. Men were plastered with moist 
gunpowder, which was fii;ed when dry. Beating to death was 
the favourite form of execution. Mutilation was common, and 
was sometimes prolonged till the victim expired. Men and 
women were slain after bestial outrages that might make a 
devil blush. 

Such was the condition of the country of Oude, and such 
the character of its barons. The above acts are not excep- 



1 74 India. 

tional, but are only instances of what was done continually 
and in all parts of the country. These are the men who, this 
year, have offered a pertinacious resistance to the authority 
of the British, as w^ell they might, knowing that under Eng- 
lish rule such acts as the above could not be committed. The 
" confiscation" proclaimed by Lord Canning, after the capture 
of Lucknow, was aimed only at this class, that is, the land- 
holders ; as the people proper^ the cultivators, held land merely 
as their tenants, and no greater mercy could be shown them 
than to rid the country of these locusts. Under the manage- 
ment of such landlords the country could not be expected to 
be very prosperous. Accordingly, we find that the revenue 
was always diminishing, while the value of a district of equal 
extent which was ceded to the British in 1801, has since that 
time increased fiearly to double. 

Such was the state of the country. As for the capital. Luck- 
now, it cannot be better described than in the words of Dr. 
Duff. He says, " Lucknow w^as a very Sodom and Gomorrha 
of iniquity, the hard-worn earnings of the ground-dow^n and 
tortured ryuts and villagers, the spoils of cruelly ravaged dis- 
tricts and provinces, were there consumed in monstrosities of 
wickedness and vice which might put Pandemonium itself to 
the blush." It was to Lucknow that the barons and land- 
lords above described resorted to spend in luxury and pleasure, 
the fortunes which they had collected as above described. 
Besides them and their troops of lawless retainers, the popu- 
lation of the city was principally composed of the trades people 
and others who lived by ministering to their pleasure. The 
only other inhabitants were the numberless dependents that 
are attached to every native court. 

The degradation and vice of the royal court can scarcely be 
imagined. The palace was a den of infamy, a sink of indescrib- 
able licentiousness and incredible degradation. Bad as w^ere 
the native aristocracy still they were men, and the king shun- 
ned their society, and lived among his singers, and the crea- 
tures dedicated to his licentious gratification. The lowest 
and vilest minions were raised to the highest posts ; old ser- 
vants of government were degraded to gratify a whim, and 



Cawnpoor to Lucknow. 175 

aged members of the royal family were subjected to the lowest 
indignities to amuse a set of dancers, and were robbed of their 
property, and forced to flee to the Company's territories, to 
secure their lives. 

This state of things may be thought to be unendurable, and 
in feet could never have lasted had it not been for the support 
w4iich the Company afforded to the king. The throne of 
Oude was created by them. They had recognized the inde- 
pendence of a revolted vassal of the Emperor of Delhi, and had 
estabUshed him as the first King of Oude. The treaty by 
which this was effected, provided that that king should govern 
well and faithfully, and promised protection and support of 
the Company. From the time that the arrangement was 
entered into, it became a ceaseless source of anxiety and 
trouble. The Company's power had to be constantly exerted 
to support the authority of the king, and prevent usurpations. 
The court was utterly corrupt ; the king was entirely without 
authority ; the feudal lords were unrestrained in their lawless 
excesses ; the country was becoming a nest of bandits and 
murderers from all j^arts of India ; the soil, the most fertile 
in the valley of the Ganges, was relapsing into jungul; the 
wretched villagers were sinking into mere beasts of burden, 
and fled each year, in great numbers, into the Company's ter- 
ritories. 

Again and again the English resident remonstrated with 
the king and called upon him to observe the stipulations of 
his treaties, which required him to govern with some shoAV of 
justice, and maintain at least the appearance of order. The 
remonstrances met with no attention from the miserable im- 
becile, lost in the beastly j^leasures of his zenana. The 
Company could no longer continue their protection without 
making themselves accamj^lices of all these w^rongs. They 
could not withdraw their support and leave the Idng indepen- 
dent, for that would have thrown the kingdom into worse 
confusion than ever. The king had no authority or respect, 
and w^ould not have remained upon the throne a day. The 
strongest of the zemmdars would have usurped the royal 
power, and the whole country would have been plunged into 



176 India. 

a state of anarchy, the conclusion of which could not have been 
foreseen. In fact, such a usurpation was liable to occur at any 
moment, and might have given the Company the greatest 
trouble m the restoration of peace. 

The disorganization of society had thus been complete. 
The government was a malignant and incurable cancer, eating 
out the very life of the body politic. Extirpation was the 
only remedy. The ravages of the disease threatened to 
extend to the English possessions. In their own interest, in 
the interest of their subjects, finally in the interest of human- 
ity and civilization, only one course* was possible and that 
was bravely taken by Lord Dalhousie in the annexation of the 
kingdom. After the deposition of the king, he removed to 
Calcutta, where he was allowed a pension of £150,000 sterling 
a year, which was to be continued to his descendants. 

The deposition of the king, as Captain Hayes' informed me, 
was not received with any great satisfaction by the inhabitants 
of the city, who had profited largely by the presence of the 
court, and into whose cofiers had flowed much of the wealth 
extorted from the country-people. Even the ryuts did not 
find their position materially bettered at first, as the revenue- 

* This course has been condemned as a violation of plighted faith. With- 
out stopping to discuss the ethical question whether this was not one of the 
cases that constantly arise in pohtics, where a permanent engagement in 
writing may and ought to be set aside, from a total change in circumstances ; 
it is here sufficient to state that by the treaty of 1831, the Company had a right 
to assume the administration of the country. This, it is plain, would amount 
practically to the course actually taken, and would be an equal infringement 
of the theoretical rights of the King. 

The question whether the annexation of Oude was not a political blunder, 
is evidently quite distinct from the above. It may be contended that the 
great land-holders above described were too powerful a class for their resent- 
ment to be dared with impunity — ^that, however much they deserved punish- 
ment, it was unwise to attempt to inflict it. Such arguments may be used 
with great force, particularly since the rebellion in Oude. But whether the 
question be decided in one way or the other, the decision will not affect the 
justice or injustice of the act, and will not compromise the wisdom of the 
Company's policy, since, as is well known, the annexation of Oude was a 
measure entirely dictated by the English ministry, as almost all the aggressive 
acts of the Indian government have ever been. 



Cawnpoor to Lucknow. lyy 

administration had to be temi^orarily continued in tlie hands 
of the old native agents, Avho found their facilities for extor- 
tion increased by the restoration of the supremacy of law. 
The real benefits of the change would only be felt when the 
whole administration system had been altered and conformed 
to the admirable arrangements in force in the North- Western 
Provinces and the Punjab — measures which required time to 
introduce and perfect. 

I noticed in Captain Hayes' house, that the ceilings were 
formed of canvass, painted in the Italian style. In Bengal 
the rooms are open to the roof These canvass ceilings are 
common all over the North- Western Provinces, and were 
introduced by the Italian architects and artists, who were at 
one time attracted to these Indian courts, and whose influence 
is veiy often perceptible in the architecture of the buildings, 
and their decorations. 

12* 



CHAPTER XVII. 

LUCKNOW. — CONCLUDED, 

A Morning Surprise — Salam — Native Polish — Hindoo Manners — Parade — Eed Coat- 
Character of Sepoys — An Army of Priests and Kings — Caste misunderstood — Pa- 
riahs—India Conquered for the English, by Natives— Bullock Artillery—" Ilathee 
pur Howdah" or Elephant Eiding— Eich Dresses— Chokeedars—Fukheers— A Coat 
of Paint— Eoyal Palace— Vanity— The Social Evil— A Modern Sodom— Defence of 
the Lucknow Eesidency — The Massacre of Cawnpoor. 

After dinner I returned to the dak-bungalow, and next 
morning again rej)aired by invitation ' to Captain Hayes', to 
accompany him to a review. As all parades take place before 
the heat of the sun becomes oppressive, I was obliged to get 
up very early, and after driving the two miles from the dak- 
bungalow, arrived by five o'clock. I found the Captain not 
yet dressed. His house was shut up. On opening the door, 
I discovered ten or twelve servants asleep on the parlour floor, 
having chosen that resting place on account of the warmth of 
the house and the softness of the carpet. The noise I made 
in entering awoke them, and they all got up and salamed. 
The salam consists in opening the hands and placing them so 
that the little fingers touch, and both hands form one flat sur- 
face ; then bowing and touching the hands to the earth and the 
forehead. This is the most respectful form and is employed 
by servants and inferiors. In it, the upper part of the body 
is bent as far as possible. There are less respectful varieties 
of the same salute, made by not bending the body so much, 
or lowering the joined hands so far. The lowest form of all 
is a simple inclination of the head, and touching the forehead 
three or four times with one hand. The salutation by salam 
was introduced by the Moosulraans, though it is now also 
practised by the Hindoos. 

When used by one Mahommedan to another, the gesture de- 



Lucknow. 1 79 

scribed above is accompanied by the words " Salani Alekoom," 
to which the reply is, " Alekoom Salam." The Hindoo salu- 
tation, which is given only to a Hindoo, is Ram-Ram. Hm- 
doos are, commonly, much less polite than Moosulmans. The 
former never salute any one whom they do not know — 
the latter salute all whom they have reason to believe supe- 
riors. The manly independence of Hindoo manners is, how- 
ever, scarcely found in the north of India, where the Mahom- 
medan influence has been very powerful. As a general rule, 
the manners of a native are cringing and slavish to his supe- 
riors — coarse and brutal to his inferiors. In addressing a 
superior, every deferential circumlocution is employed. The 
verb is never used in the second person, but always in the 
third, Tvdth the title " Sahib " — " lord ;" "Gureeb Purwar "— 
" provider for the poor ;" " Khodawund " — " representative 
of God ;" " Huzoor " — " your worshijD ;" " Sahib Bahadur " — 
" warrior Lord ;" " Bahadur Shah " — " warrior king," or some 
such term used as the subject. On the other hand, the native 
speaks of himself as " bunda," " your slave," or by some title 
of humility. Mrs. Colin Mackenzie relates that one morning her 
husband Vvas travelling by palkee, and saw some others behmd 
on the road. He put his head out of the door and asked one of 
his bearers how many other palkees there were. The reply 
was, " There are two, three, or even four, if such be your 
Lordship's pleasure." Another story is told of one of the 
Lieutenant Governors of Agra, who took .much interest in 
native schools. One day he was examining a remarkably 
clever protege before some friends. After several other 
questions, he asked the boy, " what makes the earth go round 
the sun ?" and was told, " the earth revolves by the favour of 
your Highness." The servants of Europeans, as is the uni- 
versal custom of all natives, never wear their shoes in the 
house. When addressed by their master, they stand with the 
arms folded, and when speaking, join the hands in the attitude 
of prayer — a position well suited to the slavish style of their 
speech. When a native has a particular favour to ask, he 
kneels down on the ground, and puts his head under your 
feet. When they are flogged, they never think of resisting. 



1 8o India. 

but kneel down with their foreheads in the grouDd, and joining 
the hands above their heads shriek frightfully, crying to the 
Honourable Company to come to their aid, and now and then 
yelling out that they are dead. 

The servility of the Moosulman manners, would be all very 
well if they implied any real respect — but when you know 
that they detest and despise you, that, if they dared, they 
would spit upon you for an infidel dog, and that they would 
feel themselves eternally disgraced by sitting down at your 
table — you cannot help feeling a hearty contempt for the mis-- 
erable fawning, cringing, slavish cowards. 

Soon after five o'clock Captain Hayes joined me, and we 
went together to the j)arade ground. We stood near the 
colours, and saw the troops march by. They were all Sepoys, 
but very fine-looking and tall men. Like all native regular 
regiments, they were officered by an equal number of Euro- 
peans and natives. The latter looked intensely j)roud of their 
red coats, slLowy accoutrements, and the strings of gold beads 
around their neck. The dress of the Sej)oys, is nearly the 
same as that of Enghsh soldiers, and though not so pleasant 
or convenient as the native dress, is much preferred by them. 
The red coat takes the fancy of the natives, both on account 
of its colour and the 2:>restige attached to it. It was adopted 
years ago in the armies of the independent native princes ; 
and in the Punjab war the Seekhs were only distinguished 
from the Company's sepoys by wearing a turban instead ol 
the military cap. N'ative soldiers march as well as possible, 
mancEuvre admirably, and are better shots than Europeans. 
The only desiderata as regards drill, are a prominent chest, 
and physical strength. In all other respects they would be as 
fine soldiers as any in the world if they only had one thing — 
and that is manly courage. 

Oude was the great recruiting ground of the Bengal army. 
Among its teeming population there is an unusually large 
proportion of Brahmuns, and Rajpoots, the latter the highest 
of the Soodra castes ; and they had contrived almost to mo- 
nopolize the army appointments. The pay of the army was 
so high, and the service so desirable in every way, that each 



Lucknow. 18 J 

soldier would induce his young relations to enlist, and at tlu 
same time would endeavour to prevent the enrolment of 
men of inferior caste. Though the Oude Brahmuns and 
Rajpoots, were the finest races in India, yet one quality alone 
of theirs would have totally unfitted them for a serviceable 
army. I mean their indomitable pride — which far exceeded 
that of the bluest-blooded Castilian noble. The hidalgo may 
trace back his descent for several hundred years of unspotted 
lineage, but the Rajpoot's genealogy ends only in the sun or 
the moon — the Spanish gentleman may fancy himself equal to 
any prince or nobleman, but the Rajpoot would not acknow- 
ledge his inferiority to a king, and would not even allow the 
equal rank of most monarchs. But if such is the Rajpoot's 
pride of birth, how much greater is that of the Brahmun. 
The former believes that he is the equal of any living man, 
the latter, that he is by far their superior. " You may say, if 
you please," they will observe, " that Brahmuns are men, like 
the rest of mankind — so it is true that cows and hogs are both 
animals, but you can never make a hog into a cow, nor pre- 
tend any equality between them. A wicked Brahmun is 
entitled to more reverence than the most virtuous Soodra — is 
not a vicious cow better than a well-behaved cat ?" In speak- 
ing of this divine caste, the great law-giver Menoo says, 
" Whatever exists in the universe is in efiect, if not in form, 
the property of the Brahmuns — and so the Brahmun is enti- 
tled to everything by primogeniture and superiority of birth. 
The Brahmun who lives on another's charity is under no obh- 
gations ; he eats but his own food, wears but his own aj^parel, 
and bestows but his own alms. It is, indeed, only by the 
benevolence of the Brahmuns that other mortals enjoy life." 
How could discipline be maintained in an army composed ol 
men with such feelings ; any one of whom would consider 
himself eternally disgraced by dining with you, my reader ; 
and would almost pi'efer death to eating a meal prepared for 
him by the hands of his own general, whom he would consider 
as bearing the same relation of rank towards himself, that the 
unclean hog does to the pure and sacred cow. 

This institution of caste is the most remarkable feature in 



l82 India 

Hindoo society, and is, perhaps, scarcely at all understood by 
those who have not lived in India. Almost all the English 
books which I have read on the subject of India, seem to as- 
sume the actual existence of the original four castes, the 
Brahmun, Kshatrias, Vaishyas, and Soodras — whereas the 
two intermediate castes have wholly disappeared, and the Soo- 
dras, who comprise the mass of the population, have become 
broken up into innumerable subordinate castes, as entirely 
separate from one another as from the Brahmuns. Although 
the Brahmuns are properly priests, and the other castes are 
generally called by the name of some trade, so that they are, 
to some extent, guilds — yet a man of any caste is allowed to 
do anything which does not require him to touch substances 
or engage in occupations which are pollution, according to 
the rules of his particular caste. For instance, a Brahmun 
will be a coachman, a clerk, or an employe of government, 
and perhaps their most common occupations are cooking as 
domestic servants in the houses of natives, and begging. But 
no matter how menial is their occupation, howsoever poor 
and miserable they may be, whether squatted on the mud 
cooking, begging naked in the streets, or licking your feet for 
an extra bucksees, he always considers himself, and is looked 
upon by all Hindoos, as infinitely superior in rank to the 
mightiest monarch in Christendom. So also, any Hindoo will 
be a domestic servant — but he will not cook beef or take care 
of fowls ; he will make his master's bed and mend his clothes, 
but he will not sweep the room or emjDty the dirty water, 
unless he be of a low caste. The higher the caste, generally, 
the fewer the occupations that the subject can engage in, and 
the more limited the number of articles he can eat. There 
are some castes so low that scarcely anything is a pollution to 
them, and they even eat the putrid meat of animals which 
have died a natural death. StiU they are very punctilious on 
the few points which mark their caste^ 

Lowest and most degraded of all are the Qut-castes, who, 
in Southern India, form a large part of the population. 
An English missionary describing the condition of this class, 
and comparing them with negro slaves, says ; " The slave may 



Lucknow. 183 

tread the same floor with his master, v>dthoat polluting the 
house, he may enter the room where he sits, touch the meat 
he uses, sleep under the same roof, and prepare the food he 
eats. He is not made to feel that his step defiles the room, 
that his touch infects the purest wares, and that he carries in 
his body, no matter how clean, a cursed incurable filthiness 
which fills with disgust all who have proper human sentiments. 
Above all he may possibly die free, or his children may become 
manumitted. But the Out-caste has no such hoj^es. He must 
bear his curse down to the grave, and bequeath it to his chil- 
dren, who like him will be com^^elled to live beyond the 
village walls, will be hunted from every door, scorned by the 
most base, loathed by the most vile, and know that the same 
malediction awaits his little ones." The condition of these 
Out-castes, who number some twenty millions, is only one of 
the curses of the caste system. No such insuperable barrier 
has ever been reared elsewhere between the members of the 
human race. It is an mstitution which destroys all brother- 
hood between man and man, and is therefore one of the 
deadUest opponents of the Christian religion — do not all 
Christians eat of one bread and drink of one cujd ? but the 
very essence and test of caste is eating and drinking. A man 
of one caste would not take a cup of water from one of 
another caste, though they had been life-long companions ; 
nor would he touch to his lips the pipe used by the other. 
Caste, then, looses the bonds which binds society together, it 
prevents intimacy between man and man, destroys friendship, 
and supplants patriotism. The Hindoo has no attachment to 
his rulers, no care for a particular form of government, no 
sentiment of nationality, no love for freedom : — for these sen- 
timents which exist in greater or less extent in every other 
nation of men, and have existed in all ages, are in the Hindoo 
centred and bounded by the limits of his caste. 

It was by taking advantage of these difierences in caste, 
and the indifference to nationality induced thereby, that the 
English obtained their power in India. A native will be a 
mercenary soldier to w^hoever pays best, and will fight his 
own neighbours as willingly as men of another nation. India 



184 India. 

was conquered for the English by the natives themselves , 
and it was only when the precaution of arraying caste against 
caste, and nation against nation was neglected, that the alle- 
giance of the native soldiers was destroyed, and the magic 
chain was loosened by which India had been conquered and 
held. 

The parade at Lucknow went off very well. After the 
troops had marched past the colours, the artillery were exer- 
cised. The guns were drawn by bullocks, and I was surprised 
to see how well these animals worked. The driver of each 
pair ran between his animals, and guided them with a short 
goad. On account of the great difficulty of obtaining good 
horses in India, elephants, camels, and bullocks, have aU been 
employed with artillery. The experiments with the two 
former have now been abandoned, as they are not naturally 
adapted to draft labour ; but the bullock batteries although 
they do not give entire satisfaction, are still in use. 

The parade lasted for several hours, and I was glad when 
we returned to breakfast, as not having eaten anything, I 
found the sun's rays very oppressive. Breakfast was finished 
by eleven, and Captain Hayes informed me that his duties 
would prevent his going through the city with me, but that 
he had obtained an elephant from the Residence for my use, 
and would send with me one of his servants to show every 
thing. 

The elephant was a very large beast, with tusks, and capa- 
risoned with crimson. At the word haith^ he knelt upon the 
ground and I mounted by a ladder into the howdah — a box 
with seats for two in front and one behind. When I was 
seated, my host warned me to hold on tight, and then told 
them to let the elephant rise, which he did at the word ootha. 
It was well I minded the warning to hold on tight, for I never 
experienced anything like the heaving of the ponderous car- 
case as it rose into the air — a small steamer at sea in a gale is 
nothing to it — I should think that people who ride elephants 
would not mind earthquakes. 

The elephant walked at about three miles the hour. As he 
belonged to the Chief Commissioner, not only were his ap- 



Lucknow. 1 85 

pointments splendid, but he was accompanied by half a dozen 
servants, beside the mahoot who sat a-straddle on his neck, 
and directed his movements, enforcing his commands by 
pricks with a sharp iron hook. One man Avalked beside the 
elephant's head and talked to him constantly, recommending 
him to take care of stones, holes in the road, &g. In the seat 
of the howdah behind me sat the servant whom Captain 
Hayes had sent in my company. He held over my head a 
gigantic scarlet chattah or umbrella. I did not particularly 
like elephant-riding, the paces are not comfortable until you 
are used to them. You are thrown first to the right and 
then to the left — occasionally the motion is backward and 
forward — but you cannot keep still for an instant, and I found 
my sides sore for several days afterw^ards, from violent contact 
with the howdah. Altogether it reminded me uncomfortably 
of riding on a slow trotting horse — you cannot help imagining 
that if he would go faster he would be easier, and yet if you 
succeed in increasing the pace, your suflerings are probably 
aggravated. 

Wherever I went, the elephant and retinue attracted the 
greatest attention and respect. Horsemen faced round and 
saluted, some of them even dismounting and making salams. 
The sentries all presented arms, and at one or two points they 
even turned out the guards. All that I could do was to make 
a military salute in acknowledgement, try to look as dignified 
as possible, and convey the impression that it was all my due, 
and something to which I ^vas quite accustomed. 

The streets were full of people, as it was a great Hindoo 
festival, and presented a most interestmg sight- The dress in 
Lucknow is much more picturesque, and gave the impression 
of more wealth, or, at least, more luxury than the costumes 
which I had seen further down the country. Many of the 
men had shawls, some of them very beautiful and costly, w^orn 
as kummurbunds (sashes), or pugrees (turbans), or else 
thrown loosely over the shoulders. The great mass of the 
people, however, as elsewhere, w^ore little clothing, and that 
of the coarsest yellow cotton. 

We met numbers of the chokeedars, or native police, who 



l86 India. 

are so obnoxious to the people, and whose extortions, and 
abuse of power, are so difficult to control. They were dressed 
in the native fashion, wearing a blue cloth cassock with tight 
trowsers, and were armed with shields and spears. These 
weapons were necessary, as a very large proportion of the 
people in the streets carried swords, and sometimes shields 
also. 

I noticed among the crowds a good many fukheers, or reli- 
gious mendicants, who answer to the durweeshes of Persia. 
They generally wear little clothing, and are daubed over with 
white streaks or mud. One of them was entirely naked, his 
hair dressed with feathers, and covered from head to foot 
with a yellow powder. I thought he must be cool in this cos- 
tume, but learned afterwards that it was a common dodge 
with the fukheers to rub this powder into the skin, as it occa- 
sions a slight cuticular irritation, and thus yields an artificial 
warmth. 

Crossing the bridge again, and keeping down on the other 
side through a street parallel with the river, we arrived in a 
short tune at a large gateway leading to the Furad Buksh, 
the palace occupied by the late king. It consists of a suc- 
cession of courts, connected by gateways, and each surrounded 
by rows of two-storied buildings, in a plain, Saracenic style. 
The palace extends to the river, on the banks of which are 
three larger and more lofty buildings, surmounted by gilt 
domes. The courts behind these buildings were of consider- 
able size, and laid out in the Italian style of gardening, v/ith 
fish ponds, and marble copies of antique Grecian statues. The 
whole establishment covers many acres of ground. We passed 
through the stables, the courts for servants, those of the zenana, 
and many others, the former use of which I did not ascertain, 
and at length arrived in the garden court fronting that por- 
tion of the palace, used by the king for tlie reception of visi- 
tors. This building is four or five stories high. The lower 
story consists principally of a large room, open toward the 
court, and surrounded by several smaller apartments, used 
as breakfast-rooms, or for similar purposes — all furnished in 
English style. A billiard room, with an old table, occupied 



Lucknow. I 87 

the side toward the Goomtee. I found three or four young 
officers quartered here and in the adjacent apartments. One 
of them had taken the billiard table for a bedstead, and a 
terrier dog was quietly sleeping on a tall gilt throne of Orien- 
tal shape. 

We ascended to the roof, which, though not very high, 
commands a good view of the city. The houses are generally 
very low. I was sui'prised at the great space of ground cov- 
ered by the Furad Buksh, and at the extraordinary number 
of palaces in sight. The king alone had five palaces at Luck- 
now, besides sumptuous country seats in the vicinity ; and the 
great men of the court o^\Tied magnificent residences, many 
of which rival the Furad Buksh in size. Like the royal palaces, 
these edifices were closed and inaccessible to visitors, their 
owners having withdraA\ai to the country after the dethrone- 
ment of the king, and dissolution of the court in the previous 
Februaiy. 

None of the rooms which I saw in the palace were large, 
but they must have been handsome when the frescoes and 
gilding were fresh. At best, however, they never could have 
been so elegant as the rooms of very many private houses in 
]^ew York — the decoration was often tawdry and in bad taste, 
and always perishable, as nothing but stone retains any fresh- 
ness in the Indian climate. The weather, hot and rainy one- 
third of the year, and hot without rain for most of the remain- 
der, makes all stuccoed buildings look shabby in a short time ; 
and when it is remembered that such is the material of nearly 
all edifices m Lucknow, and that no repairs are made to them, 
it is easy to understand why it has been necessary for the kings 
to build one palace after another. Another reason for build- 
ing so many palaces was the desire of each monarch to sig- 
nalize his reign by constructing for himself a residence more 
splendid than those of his predecessors. This foolish wish each 
successive kmg carried out "^dth that recklessness which is so 
characteristic of Oriental sovereigns in the gratification of 
every whim. 

Mounting the elephant, and passing again through the de- 
serted courts of the palace, I left the Furad Buksh, and passed 



1 88 India. 

through the bazar and chok. The streets were again crowded 
with people, and were so narrow that the foot passengers often 
found it difficult to get out of the elephant's way. As I sat 
in the howdah, I was on a level with the upper story of the 
houses, and could look in upon the apartments. In the prin- 
cipal bazar these were mostly tenanted by young girls, dressed 
in fine sarees of green or red muslins, decorated with gold 
nose-rings and jewellery, their eyes darkened with kohl (anti- 
mony), and their hands tinged red with heena. These ladies 
are called in Hindoostanee Jchushees^ or more politely, loll- 
heebees (red-ladies). N'ot to be less polite than the natives 
themselves to those who are in India, as they were in Greece, 
the only well-educated class of women, we will call them 
bayaderes, though it is a word which I never heard in India. 
The bayaderes then sat at the windows, smoking their naichas, 
displaying their finest clothes and jewellery, and sometimes 
making remarks to me in Hindoostanee or English. 

"Ite quibus grata est picta lupa barbara mitra." 

Sometimes might be seen beings still more repulsive — me/a 
with their pale faces, long, oily locks, decorated like their 
female correlatives, and gazing out of the windows with spirit- 
less leering eyes : 

> " Hispo subit juvenes et morbo pallet utroque. 

Talia secreta coluerant orgia tseda 
Cecropiam soliti Baptas lassare Cotytto. 
Ille supercilium madida fuligine tactuui 
Obliqua producit acu pingitque trementes 
AttoUens oculos ; vitreo bibit ille Priapo 
Reticulumque comis auratum ingentibus implet, 
Cserulea indutus scutulata aut galbina rasa." 

The city of Lucknow is spread over a large space of ground, 
but the best streets are all near the palace and Imambara, so 
that it did not take me long to see them all, particularly as ] 
was on an elephant : in fact, there was such a crowd that, in 
any other conveyance, progress would have been almost im- 
possible. Once or twice we met with other elephants, and 



Lucknow. 189 

then as the streets were too narrow for the elephants to pass 
or turn round, the other always had to retreat backward be- 
fore ours, till he came to a cross-street. 

After taking another view of the Imambara and Room-ee- 
Dunvazu, we again passed the bridge to return to the bunga- 
low. As we reached the opposite shore of the river, I turned 
round and took my last view of Lucknow. It seemed to me 
even more beautiful by the slanting rays of the evenmg sun 
than when I had seen it before, shining as if made of silver in 
the full blaze of an Indian noon. That evening I read Bayard 
Taylor's description of Lucknow, and the expressions of his 
feeling on seeing for the last time that magnificent home of 
vice and crime, represented my own feelings so well that I 
cannot forbear quoting the words : " The sun is setting, and 
the noises of the great city are subdued for a moment. The 
deep-green gardens lie in shadow, but all around us, far and 
near, the gilded domes are blazing in the yellow glow. The 
scene is lovely as the outer gate of Paradise, yet what decep- 
tion, what crime, what unutterable moral degradation fester 
beneath its surface !" 

In truth, every native capital in India is a nursery of the 
darkest crimes, a hot bed of the most disgusting forms of 
licentiousness ever invented by the depraved passions of man. 
Should the doom of Sodom descend upon these cities, no one 
who knows what they are would dispute the terrible justice 
of the punishment. 

I again dined at Captain Hayes', who gave me much advice 
during the evening as to my further progress, and furnished 
me with letters to his friends in the stations whither I was 
going. Late in the evening I bade adieu, with regret, to my 
kind entertainer and his wife, for whom I had formed senti- 
ments of sincere respect and esteem. 

The subsequent fate of Captain Hayes was sad. He took 
command of a regiment of irregular cavalry, a service for 
which he was eminently adapted by his intimate acquaintance 
with the natives and their language ; and fell, among the first 
victims of the mutiny, treacherously shot from behind, by one 
of his trusted followers. 



igo India. 

The same evening I left the city of Lucknow, which was 
subsequently the scene of so much noble endurance, and such 
heroic gallantry. The siege of the Residency is, I believe, 
unparallelled in the world's history. The residency is a large, 
three storied house, of not more than average strength, and 
entirely unsuited for defence ; and yet here a little band of 
noble hearts held out for month after month of sickening 
suspense, with unexampled courage, unflinching endurance of 
privation, and a never-failing trust in their countrymen, 
against countless hordes of well-armed, well-provisioned, and 
ferocious enemies. They were fighting to save their wives 
from barbarous indignities, worse than a thousand deaths ; 
themselves and their children from the hellish tortures of the 
heathen, whose tender mercies are cruel ; and the English 
name from disgrace and degradation. Their struggle was 
watched with breathless interest by the civilized world ; their 
success and safety were hailed with universal applause — an 
applause shared by their heroic rescuers. 

I arrived at Cawnpoor again on the morning of Novem- 
ber 13, and, having breakfasted, left in garrhee for Futteh- 
ghur. At breakfast I met some officers who offered to show 
me splendid sport if I could give a week to it. They were 
going with camels and tents to have some deer and antelope 
shooting ; but I felt that I must push on as fast as was com- 
patible with seeing the most remarkable objects, and was 
obliged to refuse myself the pleasure. 

Six months after I left Cawnpoor, its troops revolted, and 
its European inhabitants fell a prey to the treachery and bar- 
barous cruelty of Nana Sahib — a wretch, who, it is to be 
hoped, vtdll soon meet with the just reward of his horrible 
crimes, and die amid the curses of the world ; a monster 
whose name will always be mentioned with loathing, and 
heard with horror. To all his other vices he added cow- 
ardice. Miserably inefficient as were the hasty defences which 
the feeble band of Europeans had reared against the muti- 
nous thousands, they were strong enough to hold those 
overpowering odds in check, and the leader of the rebels was 
obliged to resort to the basest perfidy, and perjure himself by 



Lucknow. igi 

the most sacred oath of his religion, to obtain that surrender, 
which he and his followers dared not force. Black treachery- 
was followed by pitiless slaughter, and the blood of the inno- 
cent called on Heaven for vengeance. ISTor was Heaven in- 
diftereut to the cry. Though every circumstance seemed to 
promise the mutineers immunity for their crimes, a stern and 
speedy avenger was found in the " Pm'itan" soldier, Havelock, 
and his army of " Saints." " Though only a few thousand in 
number, far away from all succom-, and in the ends of the 
earth, they marcbed unfalteringly amid, millions of disaffected 
people, and armies of trained mutineers, over thousands of 
miles, in the worst season of the year, besieging and over- 
throwing great cities, meeting intrepidly all sorts of surprises, 
against incredible odds of numbers, and defeating day after day, 
vast hordes of well-armed and desperate men. They did this 
while the air sighed with the dying sobs of English women and 
children perishing under horrors which no pen has dared fully to 
tell. Wrung to the heart with these sorrows, but cool and de- 
termined, they marched to avenge themselves and the hu- 
man race against the demonism which had broken out around 
them."* Honour, then, to the brave soldier, whose life-blood 
was shed in doing his duty ; pity and tears for the fearful fate 
of the helpless women and innocent children ; but indignation 
and contempt for those who wrought this shame ; the gallows 
and the cannon are a fit punishment for the coward and the 
traitor. 

* New York Christian Advocate amd Journal. 



CHAPTEE XYIII. 

TO MEERUTH. 

Appearance of Country — Bishop Ilebcr — Christian Missions — Colonel Tucker — Country 
between Futtehghur and Meeruth — Ganges Canal — An Indian "Station" — Sirdh^a 
Dyce Sombre's Tomb — ^Free Lances of India — An Ingenious Process for Collecting 
Money — A Female General — Success of the Begoom — To Moozuffarnuggur — Dhoo- 
lee Travelling — Persian Inscription — Natural History. 

After leaving Cavvnpoor, the appearance of the country- 
improved much. The population seemed thicker, the cultiva- 
tion better, and the tops more numerous. A top is a grove 
regularly jolanted, generally near a village, and used as a rest- 
ing-place for caravans. The land on each side of the road 
was, in many places, overgrown with jungul-grass, a tall, thick 
sort of grass, which rises to the height of ten feet or more 
sometimes. Palm trees again became abundant, but I saw 
scarcely any banyan trees up-country. 

I used to amuse myself in the garrhee by studying Hin- 
doostanee, and reading Bishop Heber's travels, which is the 
only guide-book for India, beside being extremely well written 
and interesting. His character must have been really lovely. 
He certainly made all with whom he was brought in contact, 
love him. It was related to me as a most remarkable proof ot 
the great respect and affection entertained for him by all classes 
of both Europeans and natives, that at his death, commemora- 
tive religious services were held, not only in the churches of all 
the numerous Christian sects represented in Calcutta, but also 
in the mosques and temples of that city. 

The Bishop's darling hope was the conversion of India, and 
he used to think that he saw hopeful signs. It would not 
appear, however, that the work is going on much more rap- 
idly than in his time. The converts are few, and mostly of 



To Meeruth. igj 

the most degraded classes. The pride of caste forms an 
almost insurmountable barrier to the recej)tion of the Gospel ; 
and ages of abject superstition seem to have eradicated all 
noble and manly qualities from the Hindoo character. 

People in this country cannot appreciate the extreme im- 
probability, I might almost say impossibihty of the conversion 
of a high-caste Hindoo. Humanly speaking, it would be 
almost as reasonable to expect the archbishop of Canterbury 
to sacrifice a goat to Parbutee. As for arguing with a Hin- 
doo of intelligence, it is like using cannon against Hindoo 
earth-works. He will grant every argument of the Christian, 
will admire his religion, admit his miracles, and acknowledge 
the truth of the Incarnation. At the same time he will con- 
tend that he has an older and a better system, miracles much 
more astounding, and numberless awatars, instead of one 
only. He is the most tolerant man in the world ; will allow 
every religion to be true, and as his own system will not admit 
of converts, he recommends every man to adhere to his par- 
ticular creed, and permit him V^ do the same. 

I arrived at Futtehghur on the morning of November 14, 
and at once presented my letter from Captain Hayes to 
Colonel Tucker. He received me very kindly, and presented 
me to the ladies of his family, an honour for which I was not 
at all prepared, dressed as I was from head to foot in white 
flannel. I had come to Futtehghur with the intention of pro- 
ceeding thence to JSTynee Thai, one of the most beautiful 
stations on the Himalayas. I found, however, from the 
Colonel, that the journey would be exposing, and the trip 
would take considerable time. I therefore determined, by 
his advice, to alter my plans and proceed instead to Islun- 
sooree, also a hill-station, but much more accessible and 
affording an equally fine view of the snowy range. I dined 
in the afternoon with the Colonel, and started in the evening 
by garrhee for Meeruth. Colonel Tucker was afterwards shot 
through the head, while defending, in company with a few 
other gentlemen, a place of refuge to which they had betaken 
themselves with the ladies, I believe they were all mas- 
sacred. 



1 g^ India. 

The Lieutenant Governor of the North Western Provinces 
was encamped under a top near the dak-bungalow at Fut- 
tehghur. His camp was quite picturesque, comprising numer- 
ous tents, regularly laid out, a dozen or two of camels, half a 
dozen elephants, several companies of sepoys, and camp fol- 
lowers enough for a European army. 

The country between Futtehghur and Meeruth was the best 
cultivated that I had seen since leaving Raneegunj. I saw for 
the first time several plantations of castor-oil plant. Tops 
were numerous, long strings of camels constantly went by, 
elephants were often seen, and we passed many drays convey- 
ing bales of cotton down-country. But notwithstanding these 
pleasant features in the day's ride, the greater part of the 
country through which the road lay, was the same flat barren 
waste which had been wearying my eyes ever since I began 
my trip — a very disappointing substitute for the luxuriant 
foliage and picturesque scenery which I had expected to meet 
in India. The villages through which I passed were just as 
miserable as those lower dow^j the country. They consisted 
of the same collections of wretched, ill-built mud huts, and 
displayed the same want of order, energy, and economy. 
Though the weather was now cold, the inhabitants were very 
insufficiently clad. Many of them were nearly naked, and 
the children entirely so, if I except a bit of string round the 
waist, which, as some one told me, " illustrates the intention." 

As the great plain of India has no decided natural features, 
the absence of cultivation near the road takes away its only 
claim to beauty. Still, it might be tolerable, if the long level 
prairies were only covered with vegetation ; but I did not see 
a square foot of turf in India from the time I left Calcutta, 
except in gentlemen's compounds, and most of the unculti- 
vated land is almost as unproductive as the Arabian desert. 
This defect is owing to the want of water, a difficulty under 
which most of this country used to labour greatly ; wide- 
spread droughts, causing famine over large extents of country, 
and the death of many thousands, being of frequent occur- 
rence. The Ganges canal, however, fi'om near the source of 
that river to Cawnpoor, has done much to remedy the diffi- 



To Meeruth. ig^ 

culty, and free the husbandman from all dread of losing his 
crop by drought. Its length is 450 miles, or, including its 
branches, 900 miles. Its breadth is eighty feet and its aver- 
age depth eight feet. It is bordered by rows of trees and 
broad tow-paths, is everywhere finished with the greatest 
care, and has locks and bridges of massive masonry, beside 
ghats at short distances for the convenience of bathers. It is 
probably the most extensive and perfect work of irrigation 
and transportation ever constructed, secures the fertility of 
nearly five millions of acres, and is one of the greatest benefits 
conferred upon India by the British rule. 

I arrived at Meeruth on the morning of the sixteenth, and 
took up my quarters in a hotel, which, like those at Seroor 
and Cawnpoor, was merely a large bungalow, and had accom- 
modations for only a very few guests. 

I was busy all the morning writing and making arrange- 
ments for laying a ddk to Raj poor, a place at the foot of the 
Himalayas. " Laying a dak" is a technical term, and means 
simply bargaining with a chowdri (maitre de poste) to have 
relays of bearers in readiness along the road for your convey- 
ance to any point. In the afternoon I hired a buggy from the 
master of the hotel, and drove to a village called Sirdhana, 
above ten miles from Meeruth. I had to drive some distance 
before passing the limits of the station, which was one of the 
largest in the North-west, and consisted, like all others, of 
rows of low-walled, high-roofed bungalows in desolate com- 
pounds. Meeruth being a large station had two churches, 
each a tolerably exact copy of every other in India, and 
remarkably similar in form to a New England meeting-house. 
The only difference between stations is their size — ^in all other 
respects they are precisely similar. There are always the 
same broad, macadamized roads, crossing each other at right 
angles, and bordered by rows of puny trees ; on each side of 
the road there are the same low stone walls, enclosing exten- 
sive compounds, which sometimes contain trees, sometimes 
are entirely uncared for ; iji the midst of each compound rises 
a bungalow, an exact model of any other within a thousand 
miles, looking like a hay-stack with its high, thatched roof. 



196 India. 

In each compound is a row of low mud huts, built against the 
wall, where the servants live, and where all the cooking is 
done. 

After passing the limits of the station, the road became very- 
bad, and I was forced to walk the horse for fear of breaking 
the springs of the buggy. The last two miles of the way 
were along the tow-path of the Ganges canal. It is quite 
broad enough for two buggies to pass, and being perfectly 
level makes a very good road, so that I was enabled to 
increase the pace, and thus arrived at Sirdhana in time to see 
the monument in the church before sunset, which I should not 
have been able to do had all the road been as bad as the pre- 
ceding five or six miles. 

The church at Sirdhana is a large edifice of pukka, or stuc- 
coed brickwork. It is in the Italian style, cruciform, and 
surmounted by a dome. It was built by the Begoom Sombre, 
a native princess who became converted to the Romish faith. 
A large convent and school are connected with it. 

The interior of the church is in no way remarkable, the 
only point of interest being the tomb of Dyce Sombre, the 
old Begoom's great grandson and heir, who is buried in a 
chapel on the right of the altar. The tomb is of marble, and 
is decorated by an allegorical group of five life-sized figures, 
which is as incomprehensible as most allegories. There are 
also statues, as large as life, of the Begoom and Dyce Sombre, 
which are said to be excellent likenesses. This tomb was 
executed in Italy, and cost altogether three lakhs of rupees 
($150,000). 

The Begoom Sombre was a most remarkable woman. By 
birth a lineal descendant of the Prophet Mahommed, she mar- 
ried early in life a German adventurer named Reinhard, who 
had received the appellation " Sombre" from the melancholy 
cast of his countenance. Sombre commanded a regiment of 
free soldiery whom he hired out to whichever of the native 
princes would pay best. It is said that he always took care to 
be on the winning side, and if he foi^nd the battle going against 
his friends, he and his troops deserted en masse to the enemy. 

In the stormy times which intervened between the decay 



To Meeruth. , 197 

of the Mogul power, and the restoration of order by the Eng- 
lish, such bands of adventui'ers, especially when commanded 
by Europeans, were eagerly hired by the petty native princes 
who sprang up on all sides, as they were of the greatest 
assistance in giving security to their power, and moreover 
could always be made useful in the constant wars which pre- 
vailed. 

By hiring out his forces to one prince after another, and the 
prudent method of fighting described above, Sombre finally 
accumulated much property and attained considerable power. 
His troops, by an ingenious process, managed to obtain a 
share of the former. Wlienever they entertained suspicion 
that he had accumulated considerable wealth, they put him in 
confinement until he confessed his hiding-place. When he was 
more than usually obdurate he was tied to a cannon, at the 
further end of which a fire was lit. In that j^osition he was 
kept until the increasing heat compelled him to come to an 
arrangement. 

Sombre died in 1778 ; seven years previously, his wife, tho 
Begoom, had been baptized by a Romish priest. 

On her husband's death, the Begoom took the command of 
his troops, which were now a very large, powerful, but disor- 
ganized and ill-disciplined body. She was formally commis- 
sioned by the puppet-Emperor Shah Alum, and intrusted tho 
immediate command to a German called Pauly. He attempted 
to have a creature of his own appointed minister by the 
Emperor, when he would have obtained the exercise of what- 
ever power now remained in the Grand Mogul's hands. The 
plot faUed, and Pauly was assassinated. The troops now 
became very disorderly, and resorted to their old practices to 
obtain money. The Begoom was a woman of great courage 
and energy, and determined to be obeyed. An opportunity 
occurred for asserting her power. Two of her slave girls set 
fire to some houses containing her valuables, which were then 
plundered by their soldier paramours. The ofienders then 
eloped, but were captured and brought before the Begoom. 
After a brief trial, she had them flogged nearly to death, and 
then buried alive within her tent. The severity of this pmiish- 



198 India. 

ment struck terror into the troops, and occasioned the greatest 
respect for the old lady. 

After Pauly's death, the troops had various commanders. 
One of these was a man called George Thomas, who had been 
quarter-master of a ship, but, possessing great military talent, 
finally raised himself to a principality in N'orthern India. He 
was supplanted in the Begoom's affections, and the command 
of her army, by a Frenchman named Le Yassoult. After 
losing his command he formed an army of his own, and made 
extensive conquests in the Seekh country. Indeed he would 
probably have deposed Runjeet Sing, and obtained his power, 
had it not been for the jealousy of certain French officers in 
the Maharatta service, whose troops, united to those of the 
Seekhs, were sufficiently strong to crush him. 

The Begoom now established her capital at Sirdhana, where 
she kept the larger part of her troops; the rest were at Delhi. 
The new commander, Le Yassoult, does not seem to have 
possessed the requisite qualities for his post. The troops broke 
out into open mutiny. He and the Begoom took to flight ; 
the soldiers pursued. When it became evident than they 
would be overtaken, they resolved to die. The Begoom 
stabbed herself as she lay in her palkee. Le Yassoult seeing 
her clothing stained with blood, blew out his own brains with 
a pistol. The Begoom's wound proved trivial, whether by 
intention or accident. Her soldiers kept her chained under a 
gun-carriage for a week, at the end of which time they released 
her, and acknowledged her authority. The troops now 
amounted to six battalions. They served under the Maharattas, 
and were present at the battle of Assai. After that event, the 
Begoom, seeing which way fortune was turning, sought the 
alliance of the English. Beside the original six battalions, she 
had now a battery of European artillery, and a troop of cav- 
alry. She built at Sirdhana, a gun-foundry, arsenal, and fort. 
The whole expenses of her establishment were six lakhs a-year, 
which the revenues of her territory barely sufficed to meet. 
The latter were, however, considerably increased under the 
protection of the Company's government. She built the 
church and convent at Meeruth, and had palaces in several 



To Meeruth. 199 

cities of India. In her will she left a million of rupees for 
various charitable purposes — so that if her property was not 
very honestly obtained, at least part of it was well employed. 
She had only one son, who was a person of infirm intellect. 
His daughter man-ied a Mr. Dyce, whose son became the heir 
to the Begoom's fortune of sixty lakhs ($3,000,000), and took 
the name of Dyce Sombre. He was a miserable debauchee, 
went to England, married a nobleman's daughter, treated her 
shockingly, and finally died, a few years since, from burning his 
foot while sitting drunk in a chair before the fire in a London 
hotel. His constitution, shattered by a life of every excess, 
could not recover from the trivial injury. After his death 
his property became the subject of a long suit in Chancery. 
His tomb in the church at Sirdhana, I have described above. 

After seeing Sirdhana I returned to Meeruth. On the way 
I passed a camel harnessed to a dog-cart ; it trotted along at 
a very good pace, although the camel is not well adapted to 
draught labour. 

The native towns of Meeruth and Futtehghur are both con- 
siderable places, but I saw nothing of either. In fact a man 
might travel all over India by dak, without seeing a single 
city, as the dak-bungalows are always some distance from the 
city or village to which they belong, and when there are can- 
tonments, they always contain all the hotels, bungalows, dak- 
offices, &c., and are invariably several mUes from the city, for 
obvious sanitary and other reasons. 

I left Meeruth early in the morning of November 1 7th, by 
garrhee for MoozuflTurnuggur ; arriving there at noon, and 
leaving again at four in the afternoon, by dhoolee. 

On leaving Meeruth, I witnessed a parade of troops, and 
passed by their camp, which presented quite a picturesque 
scene, with the large numbers of camels and elephants, the 
bazar, &o. 

The dhoolees, by which I continued my journey from 
Moozuffurnuggur to Rajpoor, are a rough sort of palkee. To 
make a dhoolee, take a bedstead, six feet by three ; cut off 
the legs to six inches long, and the bed-posts to three feet or 
so, and cover the whole with mamzama^ or waxed canvass. 



200 India. 

Finally, pass a bamboo pole immediately under the roof, so 
that it shall project four feet fore and aft. A palkee is the 
same in princij)le, but made of wood and heavier. I had eight 
bearers, who relieved one another several times in a quarter 
of a mile — ^four carrying the dhoolee at once, the bamboo pole 
resting on their shoulders. One of the disengaged bearers 
carried a torch at night. Had I been in a palkee I should 
have had two torch-bearers to do nothing else. The stages 
were about ten miles long, and the work cannot be very 
fatiguing, as in one instance, when the fresh bearers had not 
arrived at the Chokee, the old bearers took me on with un- 
diminished speed. The great annoyance in this kind of travel- 
ling is the moaning and grunting of the kuhars (bearers), 
sometimes dignified as their song^ and a custom they have 
of waking you up at night for their bucksees, which is four 
anas, or twelve cents, for the ten men. This gives each man 
a httle over a cent, which is considered a liberal gratuity. 
After all, this annoyance is not greater than that of being con- 
stantly waked up to pay tolls, when travelling by garrhee. 
The worst trouble of all was the dust, which was almost insuf- 
ferable. It lay five inches deep on the road, and the four 
extra bearers and banghee-burdar kept kicking it up. My 
sufferings were aggravated by being in a dhoolee, which 
hangs within eighteen inches of the ground. A palkee, being 
differently swung, is nearly a foot higher. 

To give an idea of caste prejudice, I may mention here that 
in some parts of India, the same men that carry a palkee, will 
not carry a dhoolee ; while in no part of the country will 
either of them carry a burden on the head or back. On the 
other hand, coolees can only, or will only, carry a burden on 
the head. The Puharrees, or inhabitants of the Himalayas, 
carry burdens on the back, shoulder, or head indifferently. 
My luggage was all contained in two small portmanteaus, 
which were slung one at each end of a bamboo pole and car- 
ried by a man called the banghee-burdar. 

After leaving Meeruth, I noticed that the inscriptions on 
the milestones were in the Persian character. In Bengal they 
are in the Bengalee, and further up country in Hindee — both 



To Meeruth. 201 

of which languages use the old Sanscrit character. In the 
North-west, however, where the Mahommedan population is 
very large, Persian is very commonly spoken, and its character 
is more generally understood than any other. 

I was much struck with the beauty of the birds in India. 
There are many varieties, the more common kinds being the 
parrot and dove ; but birds of the most remarkable shapes, 
with high crests, lyi-e-tails, and other peculiarities, that I have 
elsewhere met with only in ornithological collections, are con- 
stantly seen ; others again have plumage the colour of every 
precious stone, and nearly as brilliant in the bright sunlight. 
The glare of the sun in India is something wonderful. It 
really seemed as if the ground and everything around me were 
a mirror. Although it was now winter, freezing every night, 
and quite cold enough duiing the day to make a flannel suit 
comfortable, yet a turban around the hat and an umbrella were 
indispensable accessories to a walking costume. 

A remarkable characteristic of the birds in India is their 
tameness. The little birds fly into the house without the least 
suspicion of intruding, and the crows, of which there are im- 
mense numbers, will do the same thing, particularly during 
meal-time. They may often be seen riding about on the backs 
or horns of bufialoes, bullocks or goats. In fact, the utmost 
harmony seems to prevail between the different orders of the 
brute creation, and they have apparently no fear of man. 
Monkeys, foxes, jackals, deer and vultures will all watch with 
interest the traveller who passes within a few rods, but do 
not show any alarm. The reason, I suppose is, that so very 
few of the inhabitants ever hunt. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE HIMALAYAS.. 

A Nigbt in a Dhoolee — The Turai Forest — First Yiew of the SnoAvy Eange — Siwalik 
Hills — Earn ! Earn ! — The Dhoon Valley — Eajpoor — Ascent of the Himalayas — Pa- 
harrees — Munsooree — Indian Hospitality — Landoor — View of Snow-clad Peaks — 
Hill-station-s — An Accident — The Descent — Agriculture in India — Tea Plantation — 
Chinese Workmen — A Snake Fight. 

My first night in a dhoolee was rather uncomfortable.. The 
road lay through the Turai forest, a belt of woodland running 
parallel to the Himalayas. This forest has a particularly bad 
reputation for jungul fever — an intermittent in its worst form, 
with a tendency to typhoid. In the hot season it is dangerous 
to pass through it even by day ; the cold weather, while it 
diminishes the danger, does not make it entirely safe, espe- 
cially for night travelling. Beside the fever, the Turai is full 
of elephants and tigers ; and though I cannot say that I was 
at all afraid of them, as I knew wild animals to have more 
fear of man than he has of them, yet the fever and the tigers, 
added to the great and positive discomforts of my convey- 
ance, made the night's sleep rather broken. 

When I awoke the next morning, we had almost passed the 
limits of the forest. The trees do not grow very thickly, but 
are of large size — some of them entirely covered with creep- 
ers, and others bearing beautiful flowers. There were also 
several banyans, the first which I had seen since leaving Ben- 
gal. The ground between the trees was covered with tall 
jungul grass. 

I did not have the good fortune to see any of the elephants, 
tigers or leopards, which are said to abound — but there were 
plenty of monkeys in the trees. The leopards (cheetas), are 
frequently tamed, or rather trained, and used instead of 



The Himalayas. 203 

hounds in deer-hunting ; which is said to make the sport more 
exciting. 

After passing the forest, we arrived, about ten o'clock, in 
a valley from which I had my first view of the Himalayas — a 
range of mountain monarchs, sitting in state, looking over 
the broad plains of Hindoostan ; covered, as to their heads, 
with turbans of clouds, as becomes sovereigns of the Orient. 
One snowy face alone, of a Jungfrau of the East, was visible, 
and she, as an Eastern maiden should, soon shrouded her 
countenance and was seen of me no more. 

Crossing ihe valley, we had to pass the Siwalik hills, a low 
range, before entering the valley of the Dhoon, which divides 
them from the Himalayas. The pass through the hills was 
certainly not grand, but picturesque to one who had seen 
so httle mountain scenery for a year ; and had been travel- 
ling for a thousand miles over a succession of desert plains, 
as level as a bowling alley. The pass was about three hundred 
feet wide, its bottom was the rocky bed of a mountain torrent 
which had now almost disappeared ; its sides were steep, from 
one to three hundred feet high, looking Hke the sections of 
hills in geological works. 

All the natives whom we met on the road, gave the bearers 
the Hindoo salutation. Ram! Ram! — which I had not heard 
before, probably on account of having always travelled in a 
garrhee. This Hindoo salutation is only used to a Hindoo. 
To a Moosulman, or a Christian, the Hindoo uses the Moosul- 
man salam — an obeisance which is, I suspect, very much what 
the Greeks meant by rrpogfcvveXv. All the poUte forms ot 
speech by which a superior is addressed, as " Ap " — " your 
Honour;" "Bundugee" — "releaser of slaves;" and "Gurreeb- 
Parwar " — "provider for the poor," were introduced by the ser- 
vile Mahommedans, but are now universally employed in 
Northern India. The latter title is the usual one in the north- 
w^estern provinces, and it is with respect to it that Bishop 
Heber made the mistake of supposing that he had earned it 
by his attention to the wants of his dependents. 

After passing the Siwalik hills, w^e entered the valley of the 
Dhoon, about twenty miles broad, beyond which rose the 



204 India. 

Himalayas. Being well watered, and protected hj the two 
ranges of hills, it is very fertile, and I saw palm-trees and 
plantains in abundance. About half-way across the valley we 
changed bearers at the village of Dehra, which was the best 
looking place of its size that I had seen in India. The 
houses, though low and small, were constructed of pukka, 
instead of mud. They were generally whitewashed, and some 
of them decorated with gaudy pictures of nach-girls, or 
mythological designs. It was high market when we passed 
through the bazar, and as I noticed most of the people munch- 
ing sugar-cane, I determined to do so likewise, having eaten 
nothing for over twenty hours, and found it very cool and re- 
freshing. 

About four in the afternoon I arrived at Rajpoor, a small vil- 
lage immediately at the foot of " the Hills," as the Himalayas 
are always called in N'orthern India. The hotel being very 
comfortable, I put up there for the night, as I was very tired, 
hungry ^nd dusty. 

Rajpoor is over three thousand feet above the level of the 
sea, and the summit of the first range about six thousand. 

The next mornins^ I ascended this on horseback. The 
mountains rise almost perpendicularly from the plain, and 
although the path is constructed with much engineering 
skill, I found the ascent so steep, from the very commence- 
ment, that I dismounted and walked most of the way, fearing 
that my weight was too great for the little pony I had hired. 

The sides of the hill were covered with low trees. The 
road wound around the vast, narrow gullies which are the 
distinguishing feature of Himalayan scenery. They make a 
sharp, deep cut into the mountain range, and are apparently 
so narrow that you almost fancy you could throw a stone 
across. Should you be so deceived by the vastness of every- 
thing around as to make the attempt, your missile, if pro- 
pelled by a vigourous arm, will lodge, a thousand feet below, 
on the precipitous side of the chasm. 

On the way up we passed many Puharrees, or hill men, 
carrying burdens slung on the back. They are a small, light, 
but strong and agile race. Their dress is a shirt and trowsers 



The Himalayas. 205 

of coarse brown woollen stuff, girt with a rope, and they wear 
woollen caps instead of pugrees. They are not so cleanly as 
the inhabitants of the plains — indeed, they are suspected of 
never taking off their clothes until no longer serviceable. 
Their religion is a very low form of idolatry, and they have no 
caste. They make excellent servants, as they will do any 
kind of work, and are considered thoroughly honest. I 
noticed by the side of the path several bushes decorated with 
rags, to show that they are esteemed sacred on account of 
some god's having, when wearied, sat down under a bush of 
the same kind. There was also a black stone which the hill- 
people stopped to worship, each " leaning on the top of his 
staff" like Jacob. 

Mu^zsooree is on the crest of a spur which puts out from the 
main ridge, and is a little lower and more sheltered than 
Landoor, which is on the very summit. They are both places 
of several miles in extent, and consist of one-storied bunga- 
lows scattered about on the steep side of the mountain. 

On arriving at Mu^isooree I found, to my dismay, the only 
hotel closed. Not having any letters to a resident I began to 
fear that I should have to return the same evening to the 
plains. Fortunately, however, I went in my despair to the 
club-house, the khansahma?i of which, although he refused to 
do anything for me, recommended me to apply to Mr. Scott, 
a merchant. That gentleman received me with the greatest 
kindness and hospitality, offered me the use of an unoccupied 
bungalow, and invited me to take my meals with his family — 
and this without knowing anything about me except that I 
had no other quarters. 

Indian hospitality is proverbial, and deservedly so. Any 
gentleman who finds himself without acquaintances in a place 
where no public accommodations are provided by government, 
need only apply at the magistrate's house, where he will meet 
with the readiest and most liberal welcome, and receive any 
assistance he may require. 

Soon after arriving at Munsooree, I went with Mr. Scott up 
to Landoor. The ascent is about five hundred feet. We rode 
for several miles on an excellent road, around the summit of 



2o6 India. 

the ridge, which is in some places not a hundred yards broad: 
The views, on the side toward the Dhoon valley and the plains, 
were magnificent, but when we crossed a low ridge, and came 
upon the northern side, the grandeur of the view was almost 
overpowering. At our feet was a dark and narrow valley, 
sinking almost perpendicularly for hundreds of feet ; beyond 
were the parallel chains of the Himalayas, each more distant 
range a little higher than those which were nearer ; beyond 
all, and towering high above all the others, were the magnifi- 
cent peaks of the snowy range. At first I could not believe 
that the rounded, snow-white masses which I saw, far above 
the clouds, were really the summits of the mountains, but the 
cloud-bank soon passed away, and left the grand old hills 
unconcealed, in all the sublimity of realized vastness — a hun- 
dred miles distant, yet seeming scarcely as far off as the low 
range which I had crossed in the morning. 

I have been asked to compare the scenery of the Himalayas 
with that of the Alps. The comparison is impossible. In the 
Alps you have the greatest variety ; in the Himalayas the 
most unvarying monotony. The mountain views of the Alps 
have a beauty and picturesqueness which at once detracts 
from their grandeur, and is partially dependent upon 'the com- 
paratively limited size of the features in the landscape. The 
Himalayas, on the contrary, are wholly deficient in the beau- 
tiful and the picturesque; their very vastness places them 
beyond the reach of the artist. They are simply immense and 
sublime. 

Besides, how immeasurably do the traditions of the Indian 
mountains surpass those of the Alps. Their snows feed the 
Ganges and the Indus, rivers second only to the Nile in the 
venerable antiquity of their history; they are the scene of 
legends the origin of which is lost in the obscurity of bygone 
ages ; they have been for countless generations looked upon 
by a large part of the human race as the actual residence of 
some of their most worshipped gods, and are stUl so regarded 
by one-sixth of the whole human family.' They are the most 
formidable natural barrier ever interposed between a rich and 
fertile country, inhabited by a cowardly and effeminate race, 



The Himalayas. 207 

and the warlike inhabitants of a more northern clime, and yet 
they have seen more numerous and more bloody invasions, 
more frequent and more sanguinary contests in the fair plains 
which they overlook, than have ever been the lot of any other 
portion of the world. 

The height of the loftiest peak visible from Landoor, is 
twenty-three thousand feet ; but the mountains become higher 
as you go eastward. The greatest height yet measured is 
thirty thousand feet; in future surveys, however, even this 
enormous measurement may be surpassed. In the west, the 
Plimalayas are in several parallel ranges, nearly equally high ; 
as you go eastward, the more northern range continually 
grows higher ; the southern ranges, on the contrary, diminish, 
and one after another drops off, until, in the extreme east, 
where are the highest summits, the northern range stands 
alone. 

I remained on top of the hill for an hour, and then descended 
with regret, but determined to have another view on the mor- 
row. 

On returning to Mr. Scott's I found that he had sent his 
servants to arrange for my reception the bungalow which he 
had offered me. Fires had been made, and everything was as 
comfortable as could be expected on so short a notice. 

Before dinner we took a ride around the " Camel's Back," 
a steep and narrow ridge separating two gullies, each over a 
thousand feet deep. The road was a good and broad one, 
and there were people out taking their evening exercise. 
Some were riding, others carried in jan-pans, a kind of sedan 
chair, much used in the hills, and looking Hke the body of a 
small gig, with the top removed. 

Mu^isooree is one of several hill stations. The others are 
Darjeeling, Nainee Thai, and Simla. I do not know if there 
are any more. These' are kept up principally as Sanitaria. 
Hither are sent the European soldiers, when their health be- 
comes affected by long residence in the plains. Here, too, all 
the children of English parents must pass the greater part of 
each year that they remain in India. To these healthful 
heights resort all those English ladies whose fresh beauty has 



2o8 India. 

withered under the hot sun of India, and their society add? 
so much to the natural attractions of the hill stations, that 
every officer who can obtain leave of absence, and command 
the funds, passes the hot season, if possible, in the hills. There 
is the most excellent shooting, admirable tiger-hunting in the 
Turai, and all the gaieties of watering-place society, so that it 
is not surprising that " a summer in the hills" is looked upon as 
one of the few bright periods in the dreary monotony of an 
Indian existence. The good effects of the bracing climate" 
were seen in such ruddy cheeks, such'^ealthful complexions, 
and faces expressive of such exuberant vitality, as had not met 
my eyes since I was on ship-board. 

During the evening,' Mr. Scott pressed me to join him in a 
trip he was about making northward into the mountains. He 
said that we should have to walk most of the way, but could 
occasionally be carried in a hammock slung from a bamboo. I 
forget the name of this conveyance, which requires only two 
bearers, and is much used in the hills. Tempting as this pro- 
posal was, the limits of my time prevented my accepting the 
kind invitation. 

The next morning I rose before day-break, and went up to 
Landoor to have an early view of the snowy range. I re- 
mained there an holir, and then descended to breakfast. On 
the way back, my horse slipped on some ice and rolled over, 
crushing and bruising my leg. I lay on the road for some 
time, waiting for my servant to bring me a jan-pan, but as 
none was procurable, I managed to limp to the house on one 
leg — two young Moosulmans, whom I caught, supplying the 
place of the other. On arriving at the bungalow, my leg had 
all sorts of doctoring, rubbing, &c., to undergo — Ml*. Scott, 
coming down from his house every few minutes to see if I 
was comfortable, or suggest some improved treatment. 

My accident made any further stay useless, as it was quite 
evident that I was to be lame for several days, at least, so I 
made up my mind to return to the plains, and set off the same 
afternoon in a jan-pan, bidding adieu, with many thanks to 
my hospitable entertainer. 

The views in going down are much finer than in ascending. 



The Himalayas. 209 

The path is so steep that, when you go up, you always, as it 
were, have a blank wall before you. On the contrary, in de- 
scending, you realize at a single glance your immense height, 
as you look down upon the plain almost immediately under 
you. The reckless speed with which the jan-pan bearers run 
along the most frightful precipices, and around the sharpest 
turns, in a road which everywhere hangs suspended over 
giddy abysses, w^ould, I should think, be trying to the delicate 
nerves of an invalid, seeking restoration of health in the 
mountain air, and creates in a stranger a certain feeling of ap- 
prehension that does not detract from the impression produced 
by the scenery ; indeed, many critics hold Terror to be an es- 
sential quality of the Sublime. 

I arrived at the Rajpoor hotel in about two hours after 
leaving Muwsooree, and passed the night there. 

The next morning I received a visit from the landlord of 
the hotel, Mr. Huzeltine, an old soldier of the Company, now 
pensioned. I found him very intelligent, and got a good deal 
of information in the course of conversation. We were talk- 
ing about the tenure of land, and the great quantity of waste 
land. I suggested that, with so fertile a soil, labour so cheap, 
and the terms offered by government so favourable, it was 
strange that the waste land was not all taken up. He explained 
this by saying that the climate was such that no European 
could himself give that active supervision which would be 
necessary in an agricultural enterprise, and that reliable native 
superintendents could not be obtained. On the other hand, 
native capitalists wiU not embark in agriculture, so that the 
cultivation of the soil is left entirely in the hands of small 
holders, who are invariably deeply involved in debt to the na- 
tive bankers. This state of things, by making the ryuts mis- 
erable, prevents the increase of population ; and by rendering 
that misery hopeless (since they all owe more than they can 
ever hope to pay), checks the very feeble enterprise of the 
native character,-and consequently prevents the thorough tillage 
of the soil, and puts restraint upon a more extended cultiva- 
tion. As Mr. Huzeltine said that these debts were in the na- 
ture of inheritances, and had been accumulating for genera- 



210 India. 

tions, I remarked that if they could once be wiped away, and 
the ryut could feel that his condition depended entirely upon 
his own exertions, a much greater scope would be given to 
whatever enterprise and industry he possessed, and, at any 
rate, such a change would give opportunity for forming a much 
fairer judgment of the capabilities of natives. The landlord 
replied that he had once undertaken to cultivate some land, 
and in order to start fair, had paid off the debts of all his 
ryuts, stipulating that they should repay him in instalments, 
as they should be able, with a moderate interest. All went on 
well for some time, only he was disappointed at not finding the 
good effects he had expected from the change. At length he 
was surprised by hearing that a few of his ryuts had contracted 
considerable debts with the buniahs, and, on making further 
enquiries, found that they had all returned to their old courses, 
like the sow that we read of in Scripture, that they were all 
again irretrievably in debt, and as much slaves as ever to the 
buniah, and that all his efforts for their good had been in 
vain. Since that time Mr. Huzeltine has despaired of any im- 
provement in the condition of the ryuts. 

Another interesting fact told me by Mr. Huzeltine is, that 
Polyandry, or the custom of one woman having several hus- 
bands, prevails among the Puharrees, as it does among several 
of the aboriginal races of India. Repulsive as this custom is 
to our notions, it is but the natural complement to the poly- 
gamy of the plains, and is not, m se, perhaps any worse. 

I left Kajpoor about nine in the morning of November 21st. 
The landlord's son offered to accompany me to one of the 
Company's tea plantations, and as I found that I could sit in 
his buggy with the game leg outside, I accepted the invi- 
tation. 

This plantation is one of several belonging to Government, 
and making altogether two thousand acres under cultivation. 
The Honourable Company has taken great trouble, and spent 
much money, in attempts to introduce the culture of tea into 
India. 

. They employed Mr. Fortune to travel in China, and collect 
plants and seeds of the best qualities ; they have supported 



The Himalayas. 2 1 1 

these plantations, and now offer land, plants and seeds almost 
gratuitously to any one willing to undertake tea-planting. 
Their hope is to make it a permanent branch of agricultural 
enterprize, and these hopes maybe fulfilled, as the soil of India 
is considered by good judges better adapted to tea than that 
of China, and in fact, tea actually grows wild in Northern 
India. Another advantage of India is the great cheapness of 
labour ; but it may be doubted whether this is not more than 
compensated by its inferiority. For instance, in this planta- 
tion all the picking of the leaves and manufacturing is done 
by Chinese, brought from their home at great expense, to 
whom very high wages were paid. They were originally 
brought out only to teach the processes to the natives, but it 
having been found utterly impossible to rely upon the faithful- 
ness and care of natives, even in the picking of the leaves, it is 
probable that Chinese labour will have to be permanently 
employed. 

Mr. Thompson, the superintendent, showed us over part of 
the plantation, which had at the time about 350 acres under 
cultivation. The tea-plant is a thick, round bush about three 
feet high. The leaf is similar to that of the box, but larger. 
Only some of the leaves are fit for manufacturing. The differ- 
ence between the two kinds is very ^perceptible, and Mr. 
Thompson said was easily learned by the natives, who picked 
the good leaves only, with perfect discrimination, as long as 
they were carefully overlooked ; but the moment supervision 
was removed they would pick leaves of inferior quality. Every 
plan of rewards and punishments had been tried to make them 
more careful, but all had been unsuccessful, and they were 
now reluctantly concluding that Chinese labour would be a 
permanent necessity. 

We visited the manufactory, a pukka building where the 
tea is fired and prepared for the market. As it was not the 
proper season nothing was doing, and the empty rooms con- 
tained only some air-tight cases of tea-plants and seeds, which 
were to be sent gratuitously to any applicants. 

We afterwards visited a neat row of cottages, the homes of 
the Chinese labourers, the comfort and order visible in which, 



212 India. , 

contrasted strikingly with the wretched mud-huts that sheltei 
the natives of India. 

Mr. Thompson informed me that only the finer quaUties of 
tea are manufactured or grown at the Company's establish- 
ment. The average price realized at the tea sales which had 
just taken place was one rupee and ten anas or seventy-eight 
cents a pound. 

I was very glad to have seen this plantation, not only on 
account of the interest of the experiment, but because they 
were the first tea plantations I had seen, my China travels 
having stopped short of the tea districts ; and they are besides 
the largest in the world, as in China the herb is generally cul- 
tivated by small planters who have each but very little land. 

Besides the tea-plantations of the Honourable Company ; 
there are in India others belonging to private individuals. Of 
these, the largest are those of the Assam Company, which I 
believe pay very well, their tea bringing a very high price in 
London, and being used exclusively to give a body and flavour 
to inferior Chinese teas. 

After leaving Mr. Thompson's we were stopped in a narrow 
lane, by a crowd around a juggler, and, for a few anas we 
witnessed a fight between a mungoos and a snake. The mun- 
goos is a small animal, like a weasel. It is particularly hostile 
to snakes, and remains unhijured by their venom. After wit- 
nessing the death of two snakes we kept on to Dehra, and 
young Mr. Huzeltine drove me to the house of Mr. Woodside, 
au American Missionary, where he bade me good-bye. 



CHAPTER XX. 

RETURN TO MEERUTH, 

Eev. Mr, "Woodside's — American Missionaries — Opening of the Ganges Canal — Excite- 
ment of Natives— Moral Effect— Missionaries' Opinion of the Company's Government 
— Its General Effects — Native States — A Seekh Temple — The Gooroo — Farewell to 
my Countrymen — Last view of Himalayas — Koorkhee — Workshops — Native Work- 
men — Kepuguance between the English and Native Eaces — The Ganges Canal — 
Other Buildings — Meeruth Again — Mutiny at Meeruth — Conduct of Officers, and their 
Feelings toward the Sepoys. 

I FOUND Mr. "Woodside's compound filled with tents, cam- 
els, horses, elephants, and servants, it being the convention of 
all the American Missionaries in that part of the country, and 
most of those who attended having to live, as they had come 
to Dehra, in tents. There were about twenty Missionaries 
present, some of whom had brought their wives and children. 
It was strange how my heart warmed at finding myself again 
in the company of so many of my own countrymen. 

I w^as particularly pleased with the Rev. Mr. B , 

who had served in the Mexican war, and had afterwards 
enlisted as a " soldier of the Cross." He was stationed in the 
Punjab, and recommended me very strongly to visit that 

country. Mr. B had come to Dehra by " marching," 

that is to say travelling with horses and camels and tents. 
The distance he had come was three' hundred and twenty miles, 
the time occupied was thirty days, which will give a good 
idea of the slowness of the mode of locomotion, which was for- 
merly universal in India, and is still the only practicable plan 
in many parts of the country. 

Mr. B described to me very vividly some of the 

scenes at the opening of the Ganges Canal. It seems that the 
Brahmuns were very much opposed to its construction, as all 
the ghats on the Ganges were in their hands, and they made 



214 ' India. 

their fortunes by contributions levied upon the bathers, whereas 
any one who pleased might bathe in the canal, and convenient 
ghats had been constructed for the purpose by Government, 
at short distances. This opposition of the Brahmuns would 
have been enough at one time to have prevented the building of 
the canal ; or at any rate they would have been reimbursed by 
government for their loss. I refer to the period when a Sepoy 
was turned out of the service for becoming a Christian, and 
when it was a standing regulation that " no natives but those 
of the Hindoo and Moosulman persuasions " should fill a post 
in the Honourable Company's service. On the day of the 

opening of the canal, Mr. B and a friend got into a 

boat and were carried on with the first of the water. The 
banks on both sides were crowded w^ith thousands of natives 
from all the country round. It was night, and the ruddy 
glare of torches lit up the empty bed of the canal, and the 
close packed masses of black-skinned naked Hindoos, waiting 
with trembling anxiety to witness the result. They had been 
assured by the Brahmuns that the mighty goddess Gunga 
could not be diverted from her ancient and Heaven-appointed 
bed ; that her pure waters would refuse to flow in any but the 
sacred channel. I^o doubt, in the minds of many of the spec- 
tators, the question to be decided was not whether the task 
of the engineers had been perfectly carried out ; but whether 
the Brahmuns, the emanations from the godhead, nay, whether 
the very power of the gods themselves, would not be over- 
come by the irresistible might of that dread impersonality, 
" The Warrior Company." 

As the water advanced wild shouts arose from the crowds, 
the mighty masses swayed to and fro with excitement, and 
finally they rushed headlong into the water. Many of them 
had never before bathed in the sin-absorbing waters — others 
had only done so in rare pilgrimages and at the expense of 
the greatest privations. 

It is not too much to say that the opening of the Ganges 
Canal is the greatest blow that has ever been inflicted upon 
the infallible authority of the Brahmuns. The mighty god- 
dess leaves her place at the bidding of an English engineer, 



Return to Meeruth. 213 

and flows in a channel which he has constructed. The armies 
of Heaven do not interpose to prevent the sacrilege ; on the 
contrary, blessings arise, both temporal and spiritual. Millions 
of acres are fertilized and yield abundant crops, the inhabi- 
tants have the highest privileges of their religion brought to 
their door, and the same stream which washes away the sins 
of the cultivator will bear his plenteous harvests, rapidly and 
cheaply to a market. The benevolent science of the foreigner, 
stands triumphant over the mercenary superstition and the 
money-getting lies of the Brahmun. 

I dined at Mr. Woodside's. I was curious in questioning 
these missionaries with a view of obtaining the opinions of 
disinterested and well-informed men, on the actual working 
of the Company's government. All with whom I conversed 
spoke in the highest terms, both of the general policy of the 
Government, and the great improvements in the condition of 
its subjects. Especially, they said, that too much praise could 
not be given to the very high character of the civil service ; 
and the integrity, equity, and benevolent spirit of its members, 
generally. At the same time they confessed that the greatest 
oppressions were continually committed in the name of Gov- 
ernment ; but assured me that they were, in every instance, 
traceable to the native subordinates, and could not properly 
be laid at the door of the European officials. The mission- 
aries from the Punjab spoke with particular warmth of the great 
improvements in the administration of that country, during 
the few years that had elapsed since its annexation by the 
British. The revenue of the country had been considerably 
reduced ; the quota of each tax-payer was equitably adjusted ; 
and he no longer had to satisfy the extortion of the tax- 
gatherer, as well as the just demands of Government. Public 
improvements had been extensively planned, and their execu- 
tion begun. Every man felt sure of his head, his wife, and 
his property — whereas, under the old rule, no man's life was 
safe, and if any one had collected wealth by industry, skill, or 
enterprize, he soon learned that his gains must be shared by 
his rulers small and great. 

To show still further the effect of a transfer from native to 



2i6 India. 

English rule, I quote the words of a missionary now in this 
city, " At one of the missionary stations of our church in 
Upper India, a native chief was in power when the missionary 
first visited the city, which then contained a population of 
sixteen thousand souls. Soon afterwards the old chief died 
and left no heirs. His principality, according to native usage, 
escheated to the British ; if his town had been on the other 
side of the Sutlej, it would have fallen, in like manner, to the 
miserable old king referred to above. British rule was set up, 
the reign of law commenced, people from neighbouring dis- 
tricts, still under native rulers, removed to this town, and in a 
few years its population was numbered at nearly eighty thou- 
sand souls. Facts like this confute whole pages of declamation." 
No one who sympathizes with the restoration of order in 
France by the Great Napoleon, ought to object to the annex- 
ation of native territories by the Company. The two cases 
are almost exactly parallel. In both we have the forcible sub- 
stitution of a good government for a bad one — of law for 
anarchy. In both certain rights were necessarily violated, 
and certain classes offended. Whatever differences there are 
in the two cases, are in favour of the Enghsh. The tyranny 
of a native government is worse than that of the Bourbons, 
or of the Revolutionary authorities. In France there was a 
large class who were much attached to the old Royal govern- 
ment ; in an Indian State, such a class is small, and consists of 
the government officials who live by extortion, and the 
feudal princes who grow rich by violence and plunder. In 
France, too, if Napoleon had not arisen, the Bourbons would 
probably have been restored, and would have inaugurated a 
government purified of the abuses which had driven them 
from the throne. In India there was no such chance. Gov- 
ernments there never change or improve — they only become 
weak. The royal races degenerate, and, as vitality diminishes 
in the central organ of the body politic, the extremities 
become corrupt and disorganized. Then comes a bloody 
usurpation, and the same thing is repeated. Sometimes the 
catastrophe is a conquest ; but, with that change, the above 
formula is an accurate description of the history of the native 



Return to Meemth. 217 

dynasties of India. Fortftnate are those States which, at such 
a crisis in the afiairs of their rulers, have been taken under 
British protection, and saved from the indefinite repetition of 
revolutions, tyrannies, anarchy, and conquest. The term 
" revolution," which I employ, may be misunderstood. I 
would not imply a popular movement. There never has been, 
and never can be anything of the kind in India, with reference 
to government. The great mass of the population have stood 
inactive for centuries, and seen their country invaded ; their 
royal families in chains, or put to the sword ; armies of in- 
vaders devastating their fields, and robbing their wealth. They 
have beheld, unmoved, every possible change in the supreme 
power ; they have submitted without a murmur, to the most 
grinding cruelty and oppression ; but they have never once 
struck a blow in their otvti defence — they only fled to the 
jungul and its tigers, when their country was overrun by 
robbers, like the Maharattas, of more than average cruelty ; 
or took refuge in the British territories, when, as in the case 
of Oude, the tyranny of government was no longer endu- 
rable. 

I was very glad to learn that during the Punjab war, the 
Punjabee proclamations of the English General were printed 
at the press of the American missionaries. This fact alone, 
shows the light in which our countrymen looked upon that 
movement. The English government has lately had the 
opportunity of repaying its obligations. During the recent 
disturbances a very large amount of American property was 
destroyed at Loodianah. As soon as order was restored. Sir 
John Lawrence assessed the sum upon the town, and thus 
promptly reimbursed the loss sustained by our missions. 

After dinner, I drove out with Mr. Woodside, in his buggy. 
We visited a handsome new surai which has recently been 
built by public subscription ; the school-house of the mission- 
aries, a pukka building on the model of a Connecticut Sem- 
inary, and a Seekh temple — which last is a curious place. It 
consists of a court containing one large building on a raised 
platform, and four similar, but smaller edifices at each of the 
four corners. The Seekhs, it is w^ell known, are a rehgious 

10 



2i8 India. 

sect who arose at Labor, about four hundred years ago. Their 
founder pretended to a new revelation, which is contained in 
a sacred volume called the Grunth. The new religion bor- 
rowed many dogmas from both the Hindoo and Mahommedan 
systems, and was embraced with equal readiness by the fol- 
lowers of either faith. This temple typified, to some extent, 
the two-fold origin of the Seekh creed. Its form, though 
similar to those of the mosques, also recalled the Hindoo 
temple. The shape of the arches and decorations may be 
described as impure Saracenic. The main building contains 
the tomb of the founder of an extensive sect of 'Fukheers, or 
Mendicant Friars, in whose hands the establishment is. The 
four smaller buildings at the angles shelter the remains of the 
saint's wives. He allowed himself four of these luxuries, but 
forbade marriage altogether to his disciples. All five of the 
tombs have domes. The larger one has a coating of polished 
white cement, but the four smaller buildings are beautifully 
decorated with colours, which have withstood, uninjured, the 
effects of the climate, for over a century and a half. As we 
were looking at the large temple, we were accosted by the 
chief Fukheer, a very tall, venerable-looking old man with a 
long white beard. His rich dress seemed somewhat incongru- 
ous with the poverty and mortification professed by the body 
to which he belonged ; and contrasted forcibly with the naked 
sanctity of his followers. He made a profound salam and of- 
fered us some pecuhar spices, after which, he made a long 
speech which I could not understand, but which Mr. Wood- 
side said was a complimentary oration descriptive of the high 
respect entertained by him for missionaries generally, and 
Mr. Woodside in particular. The Gooroo afterwards accom- 
panied us around the enclosure, and pointed out the beauties 
of the smaller tombs. One of them had met with a remark- 
able accident. During an earthquake, its wall had become 
cracked completely through, in a line parallel with the ground. 
The upper part remained stationary, while the lower and 
larger part had moved under it about three inches in a circu- 
lar direction, in which position it now remains, and is apparent- 
ly as strong as ever. 



Return to Meeruth. 219 

After making our salams to the Gooroo, we returned to 
Mr. "Woodside's, and had prayers and a very long sermon. 
The congregation was rather numerous, and contained several 
famihes of the station — the gentlemen of which had taken a 
great deal of interest in the Mission, and contributed a large 
part of the funds for the construction of the school, and the 
purchase, for the Mission, of the fine large house in which Mr. 
Woodside was residing. 

Mr. Woodside informed me that he had just returned from 
a missionary tour in the Himalayas, during which he had 
ascended the snowy range to the height of twenty thousand 
feet, and he showed me a fragment of granite brought by him 
from that height. 

The prayers being finished, we had supper ; and after that 
meal, having bade farewell to my host and other countrymen, 
and having received from Mr. B two letters of introduc- 
tion, which he kindly wrote for me to friends of his in the 
Punjab, I entered the dhoolee and started for Roorkee, at 
which place I hoped to arrive by seven next morning. We 
did not, however, arrive till ten o'clock, but I was consoled 
for the delay by the magnificent view of the hills and snowy 
range which was continually before my eyes for the last two 
hours of the road. 

The situation of Roorkee is very pretty, as it is on a fertile 
and well cultivated plain, and is quite hid by groves of mango 
trees, from which emerge several minars and domes. The 
dak-bungalow is under the trees, just outside the town, which 
I did not have the curiosity to enter. After taking breakfast, 
I went to see the Honourable Company's Iron Foundry, and 
Machine Manufactory. It is a very extensive establishment. 
The iron used, comes altogether from England, and I could 
not at first understand the object of estabHshing a foundry at 
this place, nearly a thousand miles from the coast. The super- 
intendent, however, who showed me over the works, explained 
that the real object was to test the ability of native workmen 
in the manufacture of iron ; and to introduce to them a new 
branch of industry. The enterprize is prevented from being a 
great failure in a monetary point of view, by manufacturing 



220 India. 

mostly small articles, and parts of things, to supply defects 
and breaks-down in machinery — as men prefer to pay high 
jmces for such articles, rather than have the delay of sending 
to England. I was informed that the natives learned the 
trade very much more quickly and easily than Europeans, but 
that they never could be depended on to perform their task 
with faithful care and accuracy, if their labour was not con- 
ducted under the vigilant supervision of Europeans. Here, as 
elsewhere, they find it impossible to entrust the supervising to 
natives, of whom an intensely narrow-minded selfishness, which 
cannot see the advantage of adopting another's interest as its 
own, seems to be an almost universal characteristic. I think 
this feature in their character, and the universal absence of 
truth and honesty, goes far to explain the want of sympathy 
between the English and native races — a want of sympathy, 
compared to which, our feeling towards negroes in America, 
is a warm affection. In fact, the two sentiments are quite 
difi*erent. The mass of the people in this country entertain a 
sort of contempt, nearly akin to physical disgust, towards the 
African race. We will not sit down with them, eat with 
them, or admit them to our society. There is no such feeling 
towards a native in India. The repulsion between the two 
races is almost entirely moral, and arises in great part from 
the scorn felt by the blunt, brave, open, and truth-loving 
Englishman, for the cringing servility, the abject cowardice, 
the unfathomable duplicity, lying, and hypocrisy of the native 
character. 

After leaving the iron foundry, I went to see the aqueduct 
by which the Ganges canal is conducted over the river Sulanee. 
It is constructed entirely of brick-work, and is nearly two 
hundred feet broad. Its whole length is about a quarter of a 
mile, and it is supported by sixteen arches, the piers of which 
are sunk twenty feet below the bed of the river. The masonry 
of the arches is never less than four feet thick, to enable them 
to bear the weight of such a mass of water. The successful 
completion of this aqueduct is a great triumph of engineering 
skill, as from the peculiarly shifting character of the sand 
which forms the bed of Indian rivers, almost aU bridges that 



Return to Meeruth. 221 

have been built have given way when tried by the torrents of 
a single rainy season. 

Roorkee also contains a Government college, a fine looking 
building, which, however, I did not visit. As soon as I had 
seen the aqueduct, I left for Moozuffurnuggur, where I ex- 
changed the dhoolee for a garrhee, and reached Meeruth at 
five o'clock on the morning of N^ovember 23. 

I found the weather warmer than in the hills, but a fire was 
quite necessary at night. The natives of India, in the cold 
weather, wear wadded cotton clothes, wrapping themselves at 
night in thick ruzais, or what we should call " comforters." In 
this respect they form a contrast to the Chinese, who dress, 
during the winter, in velvet, silks, and furs ; depositing them 
with the pawnbrokers for safe keeping in summer. I used to 
be surprised in India to see many of the natives without any 
provision at all against the cold, going about in dresses of the 
thinnest muslin, while almost all the children and babies were 
entirely naked, even in the severest weather. I used to find 
it necessary to sleep with my clothes on ; in fact, for a month 
after I left Calcutta, I only undressed for the purpose of 
bathing and changing soiled clothes. 

The 23d, being Sunday, I rested at Meeruth, and early 
next morning left this station, which became afterwards 
the scene of the first outbreak in the general revolt of the 
Bengal army. I say the first outbreak, although there can 
now be little doubt that the Barrackpoor mutiny was to have 
been the signal for the general insurrection, but the prompt 
extinction of that movement discouraged the other disaffected 
regiments, and deferred the catastrophe. 

The mutineers at Meeruth shot their officers, set free thou- 
sands of criminals from the jails, and then having fired many 
of the bungalows and massacred the inmates, ladies and chil- 
dren, with that hellish refinement of barbarity, which is usual 
in Asiatic warfare, but which almost surpasses the belief of 
more civilized and Christian nations, they at once set out for 
Delhi, no doubt in virtue of a previous arrangement. 

The conduct, on this occasion, of the commanding officers at 
Meeruth, has called down great censure ; but only shows how 



222 India. 

entirely the whole revolt took India by surprise. The feeling 
of the older officers towards the sepoys was far different from 
that which exists between the officers of any European army 
and their soldiers. These men had grown up with the sepoys 
from their boyhood ; they knew them, and loved them almost 
as their children,"^ and they would not believe that the troops, 
which had always displayed so much affection for them, and in 
whose fidelity they had such unbounded confidence, had really 
proved faithless. Even when men came in wounded and 
bloody to tell them the news, they were still unconvinced ; 
they said it must be a slight matter, and that they could 
pacify the troops. Full of this confidence, they went to meet 
the mutineers, and fell, riddled with balls. Even after the 
revolters had left the station, after all the devastation and the 
fiendish outrages had been committed, men of this class still 
persisted in their error, and when the commander of a cavalry 
regiment offered to pursue the mutineers and cut them up, the 
permission was refused. 

Everywhere was the same incredulity, the same blind con- 
fidence, incomprehensible to those who have not seen the light 
in which the sepoy was looked on by his officer. Officers felt 
that though all the other regiments were to revolt, yet theirs 
would prove faithful. They yielded to the prayers, the pro- 
testations, the tears, and the embraces of their men, and left 
them their arms, with which the treacherous scoundrels mur- 
dered them the same night. 

Such things would be impossible in any other country. 

* In fact, the sepoys were called by their ofiGlcers "baba-log" — "the chil- 
dren," or "the dear children." The feelings entertained by the older ofScers 
toward their men, do not in the least contradict what has been said about the 
natural repugnance of the English and native character. They only show 
how entirely national prejudices may be obliterated by a residence in foreign 
countries, and by intercourse with their inhabitants. In. this respect, there 
was a most marked difference between the feelings of the old officers, who 
had passed their life in the country, and those of the younger men, who did 
not intend to stay in India any longer than they could help, who had a tho- 
rough English education before they went out, and who never kept native 
women, or associated on terms of equahty with the native officers of their 
regiments. 



Return to Meeruth. 223 

The deep dissimulation of the Indian character is fortunately 
the characteristic of no other race. 

It is remarkable that the oldest officers, those who knew 
most of the people, and most of their men, were just those 
who, by a misplaced lenity, added fuel to the revolt. While 
the young men, who had just come out, with all their English 
prejudice fresh, were those who first appreciated the real im- 
portance of the movement, and who, had they been allowed to 
act, might, by vigour and well-timed severity, have moderated 
the terrific violence of the conflagration, or perhaps entirely 
extinguished it. 



CHAPTER XXL 

THE IMPERIAL CITY 0¥ DELHI. 

First Yiew of Delhi — Entrance to the City — The Palace — The Houses low — The 
Arsenal — Col. Skinner's — The Church — The Square of Death — The Signal Tower — 
Drive to Kootub — Euins — Old Delhi — An Inaperial Whim — Sufdur Jung's Tomb — 
The Kootub — Indian Sam Patches — The Observatory — Chandee Chok, the Broadway 
of Delhi — Dandy Moosulmans — The Mosque of Slaughter. 

I LEFT Meeruth by garrhee-dak for Delhi, at two o'clock 
on the morning of November 24th. 

I slept all the way, and was only awakened by the demand 
for toll at the bridge across the Jumna. On looking out of 
the garrhee, I saw, on the opposite bank of the river, the 
bright red walls of the Imperial City, and above them, the 
white domes and beautiful minars of the Jiimma Musjeed. 

Although Delhi possesses larger and finer edifices than 
Lucknow, and although the mass of tombs and ruins which 
cover the country around, give it the efiect of immense 
extent, yet its appearance is not nearly so imposing as that of 
the capital of Oude. 

There are not so many tall minars, which always form a 
chief beauty of a Mohammedan city. The domes are fewer 
in number, and not gilt ; while the material of the chief 
buildings is red sandstone, instead of the white pukka, which 
has so fine an efiect at a distance. In Lucknow, too, all the 
principal objects are finely grouped, whereas at Delhi they 
are much scattered, and many of them are distant several 
miles from the city. 

The walls of Delhi are over fifty feet in height, and broken 
by circular bastions. The battlements were not square, as in 
European architecture, but rounded with a Saracenic curve— 
a very effective decoration. 



Delhi. 225 

Crossing the river, we entered the city through two lofty 
gates, between which was a deep moat. We were now in a 
broad unpaved street — almost a square — which runs around 
the royal palace. All around this open space were low houses. 
The palace itself is not at all what we understand by that 
word. It is an immense collection of buildings, containing the 
king's residence, gardens, mosques, open squares, and build- 
ings for servants, and the dependents of the court — in fact a 
small town. It extends for half a mile along the river's bank, 
and is surrounded by fortifications similar to those which de- 
fend the city, but loftier and broken by three gateways. 
These gateways, like all others of Saracenic style in India, are 
made a principal, instead of a subordinate, feature in the 
architecture. They are far higher and broader than the wall 
through which they give entrance, and their roofs are deco- 
rated with kiosks of white marble, and a low stone colonnade 
around the edge, supporting a row of little stone domes, 
looking like turbans — not a very pleasing ornament. 

We drove around the Palace, which I shall call by this, its 
usual name, although a better title would be the Fortress 
" khila," as it is always denominated by the natives. 

The dak-bungalow is situated in a street not far from the 
Palace, and consequently inside the town — the only case of the 
kind I know of. As soon as I had got breakfast and dressed, 
I drove in a buggy to the bungalow of Captain Russell, of the 
54th Native Infantry. I had to drive for about three quarters 
of a mile through the city, again passing through the open space 
in front of the Palace. After traversing several streets, the 
houses on which were small and low, I came in front of a large 
pukka building of EngUsh style, which I afterwards heard was 
the Arsenal. This was the most important establishment of the 
kind in this part of India, and the fact of its being entrusted 
wholly to the protection of native soldiers, shows what entire 
reUance was placed in their fidelity. At the time of the 
mutiny Lieutenant Willoughby was in charge of the Arsenal. 
As soon as he saw the danger, he came to the courageous 
resolution to blow it up with his own hands — although he 
must have fully expected to lose his life in so doing. The 

10* 



226 India. 

explosion was terrific, and killed many hundreds of the 
mutineers who were in the building at the time. By what 
seems a miracle, Lieutenant Willoughby escaped from the 
danger which he had so bravely faced in the discharge of 
duty. 

Soon after passing the Arsenal, the road widened into an 
open space, having on the right, the Church of St. James ; on 
the left, Colonel Skinner's house, arid in front, the city wall 
and Cashmeeree Gate. Colonel Skinner was a half-caste, or 
descendant of a European and native. When the English 
arms were first carried as far as Delhi, he was in command of 
a very considerable body of irregular cavalry, known as 
" Skinner's Horse," which were of great service in the war. 
Having acquired a great deal of property, he built this splen- 
did residence, where he lived in a style of mingled Eastern 
and Western luxury. I believe his wives were all natives, 
and in order to show the broad liberality of his views, he 
built not only the church of St. James, on the square opposite 
his house, but also constructed, at the same time, a Moham- 
medan mosque, and a Hindoo mundra. St. James' Church, 
which was used as the station chapel, was a considerable, cruci- 
form, pukka building, in a sort of Doric style, surmounted by 
a dome. 

It was in this square that the officers of the Fifty-fourth 
Regiment were murdered, and here, when Delhi was taken, 
the English troops were horrified by finding a Christian 
woman hanging in the agonies of crucifixion. 

I passed through the Cashmeeree Gate, which being de- 
fended by outworks, was by far the strongest entrance to the 
city, and became subsequently the main point of attack for 
the English troops. 

The cantonments were over a mile from the city walls. 
The road led past the Residency, an extensive pukka building 
of English castellated architecture, and then ascended a low 
hill, beyond which were the cantonments. On the summit 
of this hill was the Signal Tower, a round stone building, 
in which the ladies and some officers of the station took 
refuge on the outbreak of the mutmy. The Sepoys who 



Delhi. 



227 



accompanied them gave the strongest evidences of fidelity, 
and the most solemn promises of protection, but as soon as 
they were all within the tower, and apparently beyond the 
chance of escape or assistance, the cowardly wretches massa- 
cred all but one or two ladies and Lieutenant Vibart of the 
Fifty-fourth, with whom I was well acquainted. These 
jumped from the toj) of the building, a feat that I should 
consider very dangerous for a man, and almost impossible for 
a lady, and fortunately escaping with but few wounds from 
the volleys fired after them by the Sepoys, at last succeeded 
in reaching and fording the river. After wandering for 
many days in the jungul, weary, foot-sore, almost starving, 
exposed daily to insult and blows, and hourly in peril of death, 
they at length found safety in Meeruth. 

Descendino; from the hill on which the Signal Tower was 
situated, and on which the batteries of the English besieging 
force were erected last autumn, I entered the station and 
drove to Captain Russell's bungalow. He received me very 
kindly and wished me to stay with him ; but I had to decline, 
as I expected to leave in a day for the Punjab. After show- 
ing me a number of tiger's skins, elk, deer, and antelope horns, 
and other trophies of his skill with the rifle, Captain Russell 
took me to tiffin (luncheon) at the mess-house of the Fifty- 
fourth. I was introduced to the other officers, who showed 
me every kindness during my stay. 

The next day I went in a buggy with Captain Russell to 
see the Kootub Minar, which is about thirteen miles south of 
the Delhi gate of the city. 

The surface of the country is uneven, the soil barren and 
rocky, so that our drive would have been uninteresting had it 
not been for the ruins of palaces, mosques, temples, and tombs 
which were visible on all sides. The present city of Delhi is 
quite a modern place, having been built by Shah Jehan about 
the middle of the seventeenth century. It was called after 
him Shah Jehanabad, a name which literally translated means 
" The City of the Kmg of the World." Although the Eng- 
lish adopted the old Hindoo name of Delhi, or, as it should be 
written, Dihli, yet the Moosulmans retain that appellation 



228 India. 

whicli recalls the glory of their most splendid sovereign — -just 
as they always delight in calling Agra by its later name of 
Akburabad. 

Before the present city was built, Delhi had occupied vari- 
ous sites within a circuit of twenty miles to the south and west, 
most of which space is now covered with ruins. These changes 
of locality were owing sometimes to invasions destroying the 
old towns, and necessitating the construction of new ; some- 
times to the ambition of particular emperors who wished to 
found a more splendid residence than that of their predeces- 
sors ; sometimes merely to the caprice of the sovereign. 
Wherever the king built his fortified palace, there the nobles 
clustered around him, and the other inhabitants of the old 
city soon followed the court, both on account of the trade 
which it controlled, and also because their old town being 
unprotected by the king's soldiery, became exposed to the 
assaults of the robber tribes. 

The most remarkable removal to which the inhabitants of 
Delhi were ever subjected, was designed and carried out by 
Mohummud Toghluk, who occupied the imjDerial throne during 
the fourteenth century. He caused all the population to mi- 
grate to Dowlutabad in the Dekkun, where he established his 
capital and built what is to the present day the strongest for- 
tress in India. Dowlutabad is eight hundred miles from 
Delhi, and the country between the two places is mostly jun- 
gul, so that a large portion of his unfortunate subjects died 
before reaching their new home. After the transfer was com- 
plete it was discovered that the new city had no natural 
advantages to enable it to support so numerous a population, 
so that it had finally to be abandoned, and the royal residence 
was again fixed at Delhi. A few years afterwards, however, 
the king again repeated his mad freak, and as the second 
march was made during a famine, the sufierings of the towns- 
people were much greater than on the first occasion. This 
was the same monarch who, driven to desperation by his ina- 
bility to extort from his impoverished subjects the requisite 
funds to pay for his military expeditions, used to order out his 
whole army and form them into a circle enclosing a vast 



Delhi. 



229 



extent of country, after the manner of a battue. The army 
then closed in upon itself, murdering the inhabitants of all 
the villages so enclosed, without distinction of age or sex. 
Another feat of Mohummud was the flaying alive of his 
nephew who had ventured to oppose him in arms. 

About half-way between the walls of Delhi and the Kootub 
is the magnificent mausoleum of Sufdur Jung, who was a 
wuzeer of the Mogul empire, and usurped the independent 
government of Oude, of which country he had been viceroy. 
This event occurred about a hundred years ago. The Hon- 
ourable Company recognized his family in the government of 
Oude, and even conferred upon them the royal title, both of 
which they retained until within three years. The Delhi 
Moosulmans, however, never acknowledged the superior title 
conferred on the ruler of Oude by the Company, but always 
considered and spoke of him as a wuzeer, or minister of the 
Padshah. 

The mausoleum is about a hundred feet square, having at 
each corner a round minar surmounted by a kiosk. It is 
elevated upon a marble terrace or chubootra, and is sur- 
mounted by a white marble dome of great beauty. The 
walls are constructed of red sandstone relieved by layers and 
arches of marble. The windows, of which there are two tiers, 
are not glazed, but closed by marble slabs most delicately cut 
into open fretwork. The interior contains one large apart- 
ment and four smaller ones. In the centre of the large apart- 
ment, under the dome, is the cenotaph, a plain white marble 
tomb ; immediately under it, but beneath the terrace, is the 
real tomb, which protects the body. 

The garden in which the mausoleum is situated is three 
hundred and fifty yards square. It has been at one time 
beautifully laid out, and is still filled with trees. The red 
stone wall which surrounds it is formed into a cloister on the 
inner side, and is used as a surai by native travellers. The 
gateways are very large and fine. 

Outside the gateway we found several hundred natives 
encamped. They were the followers of a young relation of 
the Rajah of Jaipoor. He had come to Delhi to get married. 



230 India. 

There were in the camp about thirty of his soldiers in a green 
uniform, on the English model, but very shabby. None of 
them wore shoes. 

After driving about six miles from Sufdur Jung's tomb we 
came to the Kootub — the loftiest and most remarkable column 
in the world. Its form tapers from the base to the summit, 
and it is divided into seven stories by heavy balconies, the 
distance between which diminishes in proportion to the diame- 
ter of the shaft. The effect of this very peculiar and highly 
artistic arrangement is to add very much to the apparent 
height of the pillar by exaggerating the perspective. The 
lower story is polygonal, but above the first balcony the mi- 
nar is round. Its surface is deeply fl.uted all the way up. The 
flutings on the first story are alternately semicircular and an- 
gular, on the second story they are all semicircular, on the 
third all angular. The first three stories are built wholly of 
fine red sandstone ; the last two are principally white marble, 
and have a plain surface. The projecting galleries, which 
separate the stories, are massive, and richly decorated and 
supported by heavy stone brackets. Around the lower story 
are six horizontal bands of passages from the Koran, carved 
in the boldest relief. The second story contains two such 
bands, and the third one of them, but there are none above. 
The whole height is now two hundred and forty feet, but there 
can be but little doubt that it was once sixty feet higher. The 
base is fifty feet in diameter, and the summit only thirteen 
feet. It is now in perfect order, having been thoroughly re- 
paii-ed by the Company in 1826, at the cost of several thou- 
sand pounds sterling. 

We ascended to the top of the minar, from which we ob- 
tained a most extensive view of the country, which was 
everywhere covered with ruins as far as the eye could reach. 

After descending from the minar, we walked through the 
courts of a very old and now ruinous mosque, built by Kootub- 
ood-Deen, the deputy of Sooltan Mohummud, one of the 
early Pathan conquerors, in the year 592 of the Hijra, an- 
swering to 1 195 of our era. The Moosulmans contend that 
the Kootub was intended as one of the minars of this mosque, 



Delhi. 



23» 



the Hindoos on the other hand assert that it existed before 
the advent of the Moosulmans. Each view has earnest sup- 
porters, who find very strong arguments for their respective 
opinions. Whichever party is right, the Kootub is certainly 
perfectly unique. If it was built by the Mahommedans, it is 
unlike every other minar in India or the world, both in form 
and decoration ; if, on the contrary, it was constructed by the 
Hindoos, it is the only edifice of considerable dimensions 
erected by them which has come down to the present day. I 
suppose the question will never be decided, for no nation would 
willingly give up for its race the honour of having devised 
and completed a monument which so far surpasses in sublimity 
every other creation of oriental art, and which, whether we 
consider the grandeur and originality of the conception, or the 
workmanUke knowledge of art displayed in its construction, 
whether we look at the boldness, grace, and exquisite execution 
of the ornaments with which it is covered, or their perfect 
harmony and entire subordination to the grand features of the 
design, must, I think, be allowed a rank by the side of the 
most renowned triumphs of western architecture. 

The mosque which I have mentioned as situated at the foot 
of the minar, was built as the Jumma Musjeed, or principal 
mosque, of old Delhi. It is doubtful whether it was ever 
completed ; at any rate it would now be in ruins were it not 
for the care of the Company's government, which has caused 
the tottering walls to be strengthened, and restored the 
largest of the arches, which is of majestic proportions, and 
decorated with beautiful designs in scroll-work and Arabic 
inscriptions carved in the stone. In one of the court-yards of 
the mosque is the celebrated " Loha ka Lat," or "iron pillar." 
This column is really of bronze, about twenty feet high and 
two feet in diameter. It bears a short inscription, in a very 
ancient character, which was for a long time unintelligible. 
Its origin is unknown, but there is a legend that it cannot be 
moved from its present position, and the Hindoos point tri- 
umphantly to a dent in its surface, which they say was made 
by a cannon ball fired against it by the orders of Nadur Shah, 
who in vain tried to batter it down. 



232 India. 

. Leaving the pillar, we walked a quarter of a mile to the 
little village of Mehrowlee, to see the diving, for which the 
inhabitants are famous. The "locus in quo" is a haolee^ a 
species of well which is not uncommon in the north and west 
of India. The excavation is perhaps sixty feet long by thirty 
broad, and the sides are supported by stone walls. The sur- 
face of the water, which is about forty feet below the level of 
the ground, is approached on one side by a flight of stone 
steps. The divers took their stand on top of one of the per- 
pendicular sides and then jumped down, moving their hands 
and feet to and fro in their descent. On striking the Avater, 
they suddenly closed the legs together and drew the arms 
close to their sides. They made a tremendous splash on en- 
tering the water, and sunk so deep that before they rose again 
the surface was perfectly unruffled. 

We afterwards took tiffin in the pavilion of an old sural, 
and returned to Delhi, by a different road, which led us by the 
observatory of Jai Singh, the scientific rajah of Jaipoor, who 
also built the similar establishments at Benares, Oojen, and 
his own capital, the former of which I have before described. 
The most remarkable object in this observatory is the great 
sun dial, the gnomon of which, built of stone, is one hundred 
and four feet in length, fifty-six in height, and about ten feet 
thick. The shadow thrown by this gnomon was received on 
two immense graduated quadrants, which, as well as the gno- 
mon itself, were formerly cased with white marble. The ob- 
servatory was founded one hundred and thirty years ago, and 
was formerly a great seat of astronomical science. It was, 
however, abandoned before the conquest by the English, and 
its numerous buildings have fallen into utter ruin, with the 
exceptions of the sun dial and two round stone towers pierced 
with numerous openings, the shadow of the sun's rays passing 
through which indicated his altitude. 

We returned to the city, and after dinner I drove in a buggy 
through the Chandee chok, or Silver market, which is alto- 
gether the handsomest street in India. It is about a mile in 
length, extending from the great western entrance of the pal- 
ace, to the Lahoree gate of the city. Its breadth is one hun- 



Delhi. 233 

dred and twenty feet, and an open aqueduct bordered by 
rows of trees runs through its centre. The houses on each 
side are mostly of pukka, and not over two stories high. 
Their roofs are tiled, and they have light wooden balconies in 
front which add much to the appearance of the street. The 
ground floor of these houses is commonly used for shops ; the 
upper stories are often inhabited by what the natives call 
" scarlet ladies," and by other " great evils of great cities " in 
the East. When I was at Delhi, Chandee chok was the gayest 
scene in India. Every native who could muster a conveyance 
of any description betook himself thither in the cool of the 
afternoon. Some came on elephants, which were magnificently 
caparisoned, and painted with bright colours around the eyes 
and on the trunk. Others rode milk-white horses, the tails of 
which were dyed scarlet, and which were decorated with 
housings of fine cloth and gold embroidery. Others rode in 
bailees, or two-wheeled carts covered with red canopies, and 
drawn by neat teams of bullocks. A few preferred palkees, 
or ton-jons, a vehicle very like the jan-pan of the hills. But 
at least half had abandoned oriental fashions, and adopting 
the manners and customs of their conquerors drove on the 
chok in graceful English phaetons or buggies, drawn by well- 
groomed and well-harnessed Arab steeds. All had as many 
followers as possible, who ran ahead armed with sword, spear 
and shield, shouting out their master's titles, and clearing the 
way, with words and blows, through the closely packed crowd. 
The dress of the inhabitants of Delhi is very gay. The tight 
fitting cassock (chupkun) is of some dark cloth or flowered 
cotton, and the turban and kummurbund are of scarlet or 
some rich colour, often fringed with gold. Sometimes Cash- 
meer shaAvls, or the imitation ones made at Delhi, are worn 
around the head, waist or shoulders. Some of the costumes 
are very rich and costly, but most of them are tawdry, and 
decorated with spangles and artificial jewellery. In Delhi 
there are a great number of " dandy Moosulmans." They are 
frequently sepoys, who pass their spare time as "coureurs 
d'aventures." Their dress is as showy as their limited means 
will allow, and they wear a natty little skull-cap, cocked on 



234 s India. 

one side of the head, from which their loog, straight, greasy 
hair hangs down upon their neck. Their appearance is alto- 
gether far from respectable, and they interchange salutations 
with the young ladies of the market, who sit at the w^indows 
of the upper stories, or parade their charms in open bailees. 
Now and then one may see an Afghan, a short, thick-set man, 
with loose grey woollen clothes, broad, heavy features, a dirty 
face, of the colour of leather, and brown tangled locks. He 
evidently looks with the utmost contempt on the unmanly 
foppery of the effeminate race whom his ancestors have con- 
quered and spoiled whenever they chose ; and if asked his 
opinion, will express it in no measured terms, and in language 
far different from the courtly euphemisms of the Hindoostanee. 
Half way down the Chandee chok is a pretty little mosque, 
with three gilt domes, where, scarcely more than one hundred 
years ago, IS^adur Shah, the Persian conqueror, sat with drawn 
sword, looking on while his troops sacked the city. The 
slaughter lasted from morning till night, and was accompanied 
by all the horrors of unrestrained lust, rapine and vengeance. 
Over a hundred thousand of the inhabitants perished, and the 
aqueduct in the Chandee chok ran red with blood. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

DELHI. — CONTINUED. 

A Juggler — Poses Plastlques — Entrance to Palace — DewAn Am — Emperor's Throne — 
Mosaics — Drawing first Blood — A Paradise on Eartli — Peacock Throne — A Micro- 
cosmic View of the Mogul Empire — Shah Jehan in State — A Hundred Years Later 
— Native Tact — The Glory has Departed — Maharattas in the Palace— Gholam Kadnr, 
the Rohilla, seated on the Eoyal Throne — Eestoration of the Empire by the British 
— Their Majesties, and their "Particular Slaves" — The last Emperor — The last Ten- 
ants of the Dewan Khas — The Pearl Mosque — Palace Gardens — The Jumma Musjeed 
— View from Minar — Moosulman Worship — Feerooz's "Walking Stick — Hoomaioon's 
Tomb — Chubootras — Peculiarities of Mahommedan Architecture — Capture of the 
King of Delhi. 

The next morning I had a juggler to perform for me, who 
did some most wonderful tricks with almost no preparation or 
means of deception. There came also to the bungalow some 
nach girls of a low class, who danced and sang — both indiffer- 
ently; but afterwards they performed some feats, showing 
that wonderful suppleness which is so remarkable in all na- 
tives, but especially in this class. I put a four-ana bit (about 
as large as a dime) upon the ground. The girl then placed 
one foot on each side of it, and standing up, bent gradually 
backward until her head came between her legs; she then 
caught the silver piece in her eyelids and resumed the upright 
position. The performance was afterwards repeated, with 
variations, the paolee (four-ana bit) being taken up by the 
nostrils or ears. 

Afterwards I visited the palace. I passed in my buggy 
through the lofty gateway and entered a small court, where I 
was requested to get out, as no vehicles were allowed to enter 
further. A number of shabby looking soldiers were lolling 
about. They wore a clumsily-made uniform, after the English 
pattern, and were Sepoys of the Emperor's army, commonly 
called the "Palace Guard." Captain Douglass, their com- 



236 India. 

raander, who was the first victim of the mutiny at Delhi, gave 
me two chobdars, or royal mace-bearers, to accompany me 
through the palace. They were an ill-dressed, slip-shod pair 
of Moosulmans, whose chief idea seemed to be " bucksees." 
The maces were heavy silver canes, about four feet long. 

We passed through several very lofty vaulted galleries of 
stone, leading from one court to another, and at length 
emerged into a very large court, surrounded by stone build- 
ings. Above the arched entrance is a gall-ery, called the 
Nowbut Khana, or music room, where the band used to play. 
On the opposite side of the court, and projecting into it from 
the wall of the zenana, is an extensive square stone terrace, 
approached by three stairways from the court. This terrace 
has a stone roof, supported by many stone columns. In the 
wall at the back, which separates the hall thus formed 
from the zenana, is a stairway that leads up to the throne, 
which is raised about ten feet from the ground, and covered 
by a canopy supported by four pillars. The canopy is all of 
marble, and the wall behind it is also of the same material. 
They are both covered with the most exquisite mosaics, repre- 
senting the flowers, birds, and beasts of Hindoostan. These 
were executed by Austin de Bordeaux, a French jeweller of 
great skill, who, having committed some crimes in Europe, 
took refuge at the Mogul court. The throne has a doorway 
behind it, by which the Emperor entered from his zenana. On 
the stone floor of the hall is a raised slab, on which the wuzeer 
stood and handed up to his imperial master the petitions which 
he received from the suitors below. 

This hall is called the Dewan Am, or Court of Pubflc Jus- 
tice. Here the Emperor in person administered justice every 
day. The parties concerned were examined by the monarch 
himself; judgment was summarily rendered, and the sen- 
tences executed without delay. 

In the great court-yard which surrounds the Dewan Am, on 
three sides, the cavalry and retinues of the grandees used to 
pass in review before the Emperor, as he sat on his throne. 
Here also were paraded for inspection the royal horses and 
elephants, covered with splendid trappings. The latter car- 



Delhi. 



237 



ried howdahs of gold or silver, their foreheads were painted 
with gay colours, their ears bore chourees formed from the 
white bushy tail of the Thibet ox, and around their necks 
were suspended massive silver chains, from which hung bells 
which tinkled as they marched in stately procession around 
the area. As each elephant came before the throne, he bent 
one knee, raised his proboscis into the air, and trumpeted. 
After these came antelopes, rhinoceroses, bufialoes, leopards, 
and other wild animals, trained to fight each other ; then fol- 
lowed sporting dogs of all kinds, and the procession closed 
with falconers, bearing on their wrists every kind of bird used 
in falconry. 

When I visited the Dewan Am, it had not been used for 
many years, and was in a wholly neglected and ruinous condi- 
tion. The mosaics were in many places picked out, the ter- 
race was dirty and uncared for, and the great quadrangle was 
filled with mud huts and stables. During the recent mutiny, 
it has again come into use ; and here, it is said, the Shahza- 
dehs, or princes, sitting on the marble terrace, "drew the 
first blood" from the trembling Christians in the court below, 
after which they were butchered by the Khasburdars. Of this 
story, it may be said, " Sinon vrai, du moins vi*aisemblable ;" 
if it is not true, it is one of those illustrative stories, so many 
of which find a place in history, and which represent indi- 
viduals performing acts which typify the feeUngs of whole 
classes. At any rate, it is quite certain that, if the royal family 
did not take an active part in the slaughter, they, at least, gave 
the orders, and that, too, after the most solemn promises and 
oaths that the lives of all who had fled to their protection 
should be spared. The Khasburdars, who ofliciated as execu- 
tioners, were the highest servants of the palace, and were 
allowed to perform the task as a favour, since Indian Moosul- 
mans believe that whoever kills a Kafi'ur, or infidel, wipes 
away by the act all his previous sins. 

From the Dewan Am we went into a smaller court, on one 
side of which, upon a terrace of pure white marble, is the 
Dewan Khas, or private hall — where the Emperor held his 
levees, and received the higher nobles to audience. It is a 



238 India. 

square marble canopy, resting on massive square pillars and 
arches of the same material. The marble is very highly pol- 
ished. There is but little decoration — a few exquisitely 
graceful flowers in mosaic work being the only ornaments. 
One side of the Dewan Khas opens on the court, a second 
side looks on the palace gardens, a third side commands a fine 
view of the broad Jumna, which runs below, and the fourth 
rests against the walls of the zenana. Between each pair of 
the outside rows of pillars is a very beautiful balustrade of 
marble, chastely carved in several designs of perforated work. 
The roof has at each corner a marble kiosk with a gilt dome. 
The shape of the building is oblong, and its greatest length 
not more than sixty feet. I cannot deny that my first feeling, 
after all the encomiums I had heard, was one of disappointment 
with the size. 

The ceiling was once entirely composed of gold and silver 
filagree work, for which the goldsmiths of Delhi are still 
noted. In the centre stood the famous peacock throne, so 
called from its back being formed by jewelled representations 
of peacocks' tails. The throne was six feet long and four 
feet broad, composed of solid gold, inlaid with precious gems. 
It was surmounted by a gold canopy, supported on twelve 
pillars of the same material. Around the canopy hung a 
fringe of pearls, and on each side of the throne stood two 
chattahs^ or umbrellas, the symbol of royalty; they were 
formed of crimson velvet, richly embroidered with gold thread 
and pearls, and had handles eight feet long, of solid gold, 
studded with diamonds. Tliis unparalleled achievement of 
the jeweller's art was constructed by Austin de Bordeaux, 
by command of the Emperor, Shah Jehan, who founded the 
present city of Delhi, and built this palace. The value of the 
throne is estimated by Tavernier, a Frenchman who saw it, 
and who was himself a professional jeweller, at six millions of 
pounds sterling. 

Here then, on this magnificent throne, in the most beautiful 
apartment of the grandest palace in the East, within the walls 
of his splendid and populous capital, sat the Emperor Shah 
Jehan, arrayed in the most sumptuous attire, sparkling in 



Delhi. 239 

jewels of unparalleled beauty, and surrounded by the pomp and 
state of a court, in comparison with which even the costly 
splendour of Louis XIV., which ruined his kingdom and dy- 
nasty, grows pale. He was at the head of an almost countless 
army, the absolute sovereign of one-sixth of the human race ; 
and as he sat in state and received the homage of his powerful 
vassals, he must have gazed with satisfaction on the proud le- 
gend which he had caused to be inscribed on the cornice of 
this his presence chamber, " If there be a paradise on earth, 
it is here, it is here." Little did he anticipate that all this 
should pass away from his grasp, and that he himself, after 
ten years of imprisonment, would die in the fortress of Agra. 

A hundred years later, Mohummud Shah, a descendant of 
Shah Jehan, is sitting in this same apartment. He is still sur- 
rounded by all the insignia of royalty, but beside him sits a 
Persian soldier, in whose hands is aU the power. Nadur 
Shah wills to be treated as the guest of his captive, and takes 
a pleasure in mocking humbled royalty by allowing the con- 
quered Emperor to preserve the outward show of authority. 
Coffee is brought by the highest lord of the household, but 
he is uncert^n to whom he should first offer the fragrant bev- 
erage — he knows that his head will be the penalty for the 
least apparent slight to either of the monarchs whom he is 
serving. But the native tact of the Indian Moosulman bears 
him safely through the trial, and with a graceful pohteness 
that would have honoured a noble of the " old regime," he 
takes the salver to his old sovereign, saying as he presented 
it, "I know that your Majesty would not allow your distin- 
guished guest to be served by any but your own royal hands." 
With a true Persian appreciation of courtly polish, ISTadur 
Shah says to the Emperor, " If all your Majesty's servants had 
known their duty as well, and done it as thoroughly as this 
one, I should not now be sitting here." 

So the coffee was served without bloodshed, and the two 
kings sat and sipped it, and talked together as if they were 
the best friends in the world. The next day Delhi was sub- 
jected to all the horrors of a general sack and massacre, and 
the old Emperor lay prostrate at the conqueror's feet inter- 



240 India. 

ceding for the lives of his subjects. The month which followed 
was spent in plundering and torturing high and low to obtain 
their money, and in scarce six weeks from his first appearance 
in the capital, ]S"adur Shah led back his victorious army, bear- 
ing to his western home the golden peacock throne, the 
hoarded treasures of the Mogul Empire, all the money and 
jewels which could be collected, and leading with him into 
captivity many hundreds of those skilful artisans and work- 
men for which Delhi has always been famous. 

Henceforth we read of one invasion after another. The 
power of the Mogul throne had passed away, the few trea- 
sures of the palace and the public buildings which escaped 
the rapacity of the Persians and Afghans were plundered by 
the Maharattas, who melted down the gold filagree ceihng of 
the Dewan Khas, and destroyed a magnificent crystal seat, 
which was one of its most remarkable ornaments, by lighting 
a fire round it. Two occupants of the imperial throne were 
successively assassinated. Their successor was forced to throw 
himself on the protection of the English, who gave him shel- 
ter and an ample income at Allahabad. Five years afterwards, 
in 1 77 1, he again returned to Delhi, where he soon became a 
mere tool of the Maharattas. Six years later and the scene is 
again in the Dewan Khas. Delhi has been invested by a for- 
midable body of rebels, to which the Maharatta garrison offered 
no resistance. The Emperor was dragged before the rebel 
chief Gholam Kadur, who is seated in the throne-room, and 
is commanded to show where his treasures are concealed. In 
vain he plead the utter poverty of himself and his family. The 
rebel general, incensed at his inability to extract the mforma- 
tion, knocked down the aged monarch, and kneeling on his 
breast, put out his eyes with his dagger, while the poor old 
man could only murmur, " Why should I be deprived of those 
eyes which have been incessantly employed, for sixty years, in 
studying the sacred Koran ?" 

The Maharattas, however, soon returned in great force. They 
deposed the rebel chief and caused him to be trodden to death 
by elephants. The Emperor was restored to a nominal sov- 
ereignty, but he was really only a little more comfortable than 



Delhi. 



241 



when a captive of Gholam Kadur. Sindiah, the rajah of the 
Maharattas, and his French officers, only allowed the imperial 
family a miserably insufficient annuity, retaining in their own 
hands nearly the whole revenue of the Crown property. 
Bishop Heber relates that during this period most of the 
marble and inlaid ornaments of the palace were mutilated ; 
as they were actually sold by the Emperor to obtain bread for 
himself and his children. In 1803 the arms of the British 
triumphed over those of the Maharattas. The Emperor at 
once threw himself under the protection of Lord Lake, and 
begged to be delivered from his oppressors. Five years after 
he was deposed and blinded by Gholam Kadur, the poor old 
monarch again took a seat in the throne-room of his ances- 
tors, the scene of his former humiliation. The splendour of 
the Mogul empire had long since dej)arted, wdth its power, 
and the blind and feeble king had only a tattered canopy over 
his head to mark his royal rank. Lord Lake approached the 
Emperor with the utmost respect ; he recognized him as the 
" fidoi," or feudal sovereign of the Company, and reinstated 
him in the enjoyment of his revenues. The deliverance of 
their Emperor from the combined tyranny of the Maharattas 
and their French officers, was a cause of the greatest rejoicing 
to the inhabitants of Delhi, and an immense concourse of peo- 
ple assembled to greet the solemn entrance of the English 
commander. For a long time the English continued to rule 
India in the name of the Emperor. Since 1830, however, the 
meaningless form has been abohshed, but the Emperor was 
still recognized as a sovereign, although the imperial power 
was confined to the limits of his palace. The lowest member 
of the royal fimily, of whom there are hundreds living in the 
palace, always addressed the British Resident as " Our particu- 
lar slave," and was answered, " Your Majesty's slave has 
heard your Majesty's commands, &c." The royal family re- 
ceived regularly an allowance of $750,000 per annum, on which 
the Emj)eror was enabled to keep up considerable state, and 
held regular courts in the long abandoned Dewan Khas, 
where Bishop Heber was presented. Of this ceremony ho 
gives an interesting description in his " Travels." 

11 



242 India. 

For fifty years after this time Delhi enjoyed uninterrupted 
tranquillity, under the powerftil protection of the British. 
The city was thoroughly fortified and drained ; and its aque- 
duct, which had become useless under the Maharattas, was 
restored. The inhabitants were freed from the fear of inva- 
sion and piUage from without, or the oppressive rapacity of 
their native governors. The royal family were protected in 
the enjoyment of their throne, honours, and revenues. 

The last Emperor, who was on the throne when I visited 
Delhi, appeared in public only once a year. The rest of his 
time he passed in the puerile amusements of his zenana. He 
is an old man, almost childish it was said, and might have 
died quietly if he had not been sufiiciently foolish to join the 
recent revolt — a movement which, had it succeeded, would 
have thrown India back to the state in which it was after 
N'adur Shah's conquest— from which he could have expected 
no advantage (for no one who has studied the history of India 
will believe that he could have retained power for any time) ; 
and which, in its failure, involved the ruin of himself and his 
family, the devastation of his city, and the misery of what 
were the dominions of his ancestors. 

The Dewan Khas is again occupied. The last monarch of 
Shah Jehan's line is again present in the throne-room of his 
empire. He is a mean-looking old man, plainly dressed, 
crouched upon a low native bedstead, and smoking a hookah. 
His hairs are white, and what little expression remains in his 
Jewish features, is not pleasant to look at. Before him, at a 
table, sit a row of ofiicers in the English uniform. They are 
judging him for treason to the Power to whose protection 
and generosity alone he owed his position and ability to do 
mischief. After the most ample and pains-taking investiga- 
tion, they convict him of treachery and murder. 

Of all the remarkable events of which the Dewan Khas has 
been the theatre, certainly this was the grandest and most 
significant. If the trial of Charles the First was not merely 
his individual condemnation, but was also the practical denial 
and abolition of the Divine Right of English kings, and the 
adoption of the democratic idea in the government, then the 



Delhi. 



243 



judgment pronounced upon the king of Delhi was not only 
the decree of a British court upon a miserable old man, ren- 
dered almost imbecile by age and a long life of debauchery : 
it was the verdict of the civilised world on the whole line of 
which he was the last representative — it was the sentence 
pronounced by Christendom upon the utter incapacity, the 
childish folly, the hopeless corruption, the abandoned licen- 
tiousness, the fiendish cruelty, and the intolerable oppression 
of the effete dynasties of Asia — it was the decision of Human- 
ity in the grand trial between Christianity and Paganism for 
supremacy in the East — a decision which, it is not presump- 
tuous to say, has been ratified by the Eternal Justice of the 
King of kings. 

The narrative of the various events that have taken place in 
the Dewan Khas, has led me away from the regular descrip- 
tion of my visit to the Palace, and to that we will now return. 

I had now seen the two reception courts of the Mogul 
emperors, the Dewan Am and the Dewan Khas. Leaving 
the latter, I wandered for a while among the extensive gar- 
dens which were once magnificent, but had long been sadly 
neglected, like the rest of the Palace. 

I next visited the Motee Miisjeed, or "Pearl Mosque," 
where the Emperor worshipped every day. It is a small 
building of the purest white marble, and without ornament. 
The domes were gilt, and the doors were of bronze, worked 
with much skill and taste. 

I had now seen all that was exhibited to visitors, in the 
Palace. The zenana, or private apartments, were of course 
not visible, and the rest of the large space enclosed within the 
Palace walls was used for the residences of the many depen- 
dents of the court, and was not worth seeing. 

From the Palace I went to the Jumma Miisjeed, or prin- 
cipal mosque, which is about a quarter of a mile distant. It 
is situated on an elevation in the centre of the city, and is 
visible from every part of the town. Around the crest of the 
elevations runs a red stone wall, having three gates, each 
approached by a broad flight of fifty steps from the street 
below. The eastern gateway is the finest, and the steps 



244 India. 

leading up to it are the broadest ; they are used as a sort 
of market, during the afternoon, by birdsellers, muraba 
(sweetmeat) dealers, and others. These three entrances lead 
into a quadrangle, about three hundred feet square, on the 
western side of which is the mosque proper. The court is 
paved with red sandstone, inlaid with white marble; and 
contains in its centre a large marble tank for ablutions. 

The mosque proper, as I have said before, occupies the 
greater part of the western side, being the side toward Mecca. 
It is built of red sandstone, and is about two hundred feet 
in length by over one hundred deep. Toward the court it is 
open, the wall being supported by the arches, of nearly Gothic 
form. Within, it is paved with oblong slabs of marble, inlaid 
vn.th borders of black stone, which define the space allowed 
to each worshipper. The western wall is also wainscotted 
with marble slabs. In its middle is the Kibla, a marble niche 
showing the direction of Mecca. Close to the Kibla is the 
pulpit, a solid marble platform, approached by a few steps 
from the ground. There are three domes, of great size and 
very graceful. They are formed of white marble, relieved by 
vertical layers of red stone ; and terminate in delicate spires 
of gilt copper. The mosque is flanked by two minars, one 
hundred and thirty feet high, composed of white marble and 
red stone, in alternate vertical layers. At about equal dis- 
tances are three projecting galleries, and they are crowned 
with light pavilions of white marble. 

The whole efiect of the mosque is extremely imposing, and 
I suppose it is, as the natives claim, the finest building ever 
erected for Mahommedan worship. 

I ascended one of the minars, from which I obtained a mag- 
nificent view of the city and the surrounding country. The 
appearance of Delhi is quite different from that of Benares. 
In the latter, the houses are high, and have flat paved roofs. 
In Delhi, on the contrary, although more than half of the 
population are Hindoos, the architecture is entirely Moosul- 
man, as it is in almost all the other cities of IsTorthern India. 
The houses are low, with tiled roofs, upon which the inhabit- 
ants amuse themselves with flying kites — a national amuse= 



Delhi. 245 

ment, which formed one of the most frequent and serious 
occupations of the royal family. 

As I sat on the summit of the minar, looking east, the 
panorama was very striking. Before me rolled the Jumna, 
almost parallel with the front of the mosque. On the further 
bank of the river nothing was to be seen but the low shore, 
and the broad barren plain. Sometimes, they say, the 
Himalayas are visible, but that can only be in the fairest 
weather. Along the western bank, ran the Palace, which 
with its fortifications, its courts and streets, and the great 
variety of buildings which it encloses, presented just the 
appearance of a v/alled town. From the great gate of the 
Palace, the broad Chandee chok ran west to the city walls, 
dividing the mass of tiled roofs into two nearly equal areas. 
Beyond this street was seen the house of the Begoom Sombre, 
a sj^lendid residence. This and the Palace are almost the only 
conspicuous objects in the city, except the mosques, which for 
size and splendour do not compare with those of Lucknow. 
Although so large a part of the inhabitants are Hindoos, I did 
not remark the pointed spire of a single Mundra. 

Beyond the city walls all was desolation. On my left, that 
is on the northern side, rose the low hiUs which intervened 
between the city and the cantonments. On the south side of 
the city, were the ruins of old Delhi, conspicuous among which 
were the tombs of Hoomaioon and Sufdur Jung, the Obser- 
vatory, and the old forts of former dynasties. Far in the 
distance I could see the Kootub Minar. 

On descending from the minar, I made an unsuccessful 
attempt to enter a portion of the court which is partitioned 
oif by a beautifully carved white marble screen. In it are 
kept certain relics of the Prophet, and of the two famous 
Imams, Hiissun and Hoosen. This enclosure, however, is so 
sacred that no Kaffurs are allowed to enter it; indeed, formerly, 
Europeans could not come within the great enclosure of the 
mosque without removing their shoes. This prohibition had, 
however, been removed by government, who obtained the 
right to interfere by the repairs which they have made to the 
building, and the sums of money which they allowed for its 
support. 



2/^b India. 

It being Friday, the Mahommedan Sabbath, some hundreds 
of Moosulmans bad assembled for worship. This may seem a 
small number for so large a city, especially as I did not see 
any worshippers at the other mosques ; but I believe I have 
mentioned before that the Moosleem in India are far from 
displaying that regular attention to the forms of their religion 
which is so strikins^ to the traveler in Arabian and Turkish 
countries. The devotions consisted in various genuflexions, 
and the rapid muttering of Arabic prayers, which are not 
" understanded of the people." 

On the last day of the Ramuzan the Emperor always came 
m state to this mosque to break up the Fast. The vast enclo- 
sure of the building, which holds twelve thousand persons, 
was then filled with the faithful in their gayest attire, and 
marshalled in straight rows by the marble lines and spaces in 
the pavement. The spectacle is described as deeply impres- 
sive. 

The Jumma Miisjeed was built in 1630, by Shah Jehan, the 
same monarch who founded the present city and constructed 
the Palace. It is said that for many years prayers have been 
ofiered up in it for the restoration of the Moosulman Empire. 
This is very likely, as, although the government would cer- 
tainly have known of it, they would not feel themselves called 
upon to interfere with the religious worship of the natives ; 
and would look upon it as a matter of very small importance, 
whatever might be the tenour of the jDrayers. Since the 
taking of Delhi, certain persons have proposed that this build- 
ing should be turned, into a Christian Cathedral. As it con- 
sists mainly of a large court, it is plain that the plan is imprac- 
ticable. It could only be carried out by walling up the east- 
ern arches of the mosque proper, which would give a very 
awkward apartment entirely unadapted to Christian worship, 
and would utterly destroy the architectural effect. 

From the Jumma Miisjeed I returned to the dak-bungalow 
and took tiffin, after which I drove to the tomb of the Em- 
peror Hoomaioon, which is about three miles south of the 
Delhi gate of the city. 

On the way I stopped to see a celebrated object called Fee- 



Delhi. 247 

rooz Shah ka Lat, or the Emperor Feerooz's walking stick. 
It is situated among the ruins of the palace of that monarch, 
and is a round granite shaft, thirty or forty feet high. The 
material of the column is a sort of stone which is not found 
nearer than the Siwalik hills, a hundred miles from Delhi. It 
was originally set np in Meeruth, but was removed from that 
place by the Emperor Feerooz, a Moosulman prince of the 
Toghluk dynasty, who ruled in Delhi during the fourteenth cen- 
tury, and died ten years before Taimoor's invasion. The Lat 
is covered by an inscription, in a very ancient character, 
which was entirely unintelligible to the most learned Brah- 
muns, even in the time of Feerooz. European skill has, how- 
ever, deciphered the writing, which proves to consist of cer- 
tain edicts for the furtherance of religion and virtue enacted 
by a king called Dhumma Asoko Piyadasi, who reigned B.C. 
320, and who must have changed his character after ascending 
the throne, as he only obtained that dignity by the murder 
of ninety of his relations who had prior claims. The column 
is therefore at least twenty-two hundred years old, and the 
inscrij^tion upon it is j^robably the oldest writing in India. 

All around the Lat are the massive ruins of the palace and 
Jumma Musjeed, built by Feerooz at this 23lace, which was then 
the centre of his capital city. 

Hoomaioon's tomb is a square building of red stone and 
marble, built upon a terrace about three hundred feet square, 
and twenty high, formed of the same materials. The archi- 
tecture is in the purest and simplest form of Indian Moosul- 
man art. Each side of the mausoleum is over a hundred feet 
long, and contains three deep arched recesses, almost the Avhole 
height of the building, within which are the windows. The 
arches are almost pure Gothic, but a little flattened. The 
dome is of white marble, and is considerably lower than those 
of the later Moosulman buildino-s. 

Within the building, under the dome, is a large circular^ 
room, containing in its centre the simple, unadorned tomb of 
the Emperor. Hoomaioon was the son of Babur, and father 
of Akbur. He did not long enjoy the empire conquered by 
his father, for, having been deposed by a successful rebelUou, 



248 India. 

he became a fugitive from one Indian court to another, and 
finally had to take refuge with the King of Persia. At length 
he treacherously got possession of a city belongmg to his pro- 
tector, and with the money and forces obtained by this act, he 
succeeded in overthrowing one of his most formidable oppo- 
nents, his younger brother Kamran. Having put out Kam- 
ran's eyes he contmued the reconquest of his empire, and at last 
reestabhshed his throne at Delhi, after sixteen years of exile. 
Six months afterwards he died, having fallen from the stair- 
case of his library upon a marble floor. He was a great 
schol^', astrologer and patron of literature, and is considered 
one of the finest characters in Indian history. 

The two wives of Hoomaioon are also buried in this build- 
ing, which contains besides the tombs of other members of 
his house ; among them that of Dara Sheko, the eldest son 
of Shah Jehan, who was murdered by the command of his 
brother, the Emperor Aurungzeeb. 

The terrace, or chubootra, on which this mausoleum is built, 
is a distinctive feature of Moosulman art in India. It is always 
much broader than the building w^hich it supports, and gener- 
ally just so high that when the observer stands at the entrance 
of the court-yard, the lower line of the building is apparently 
on a level with his eye. The efiect of these chubootras is 
really wonderful, and is like that of a good frame to a picture, 
or a pedestal to a statue. The arched recesses which are 
spoken of above, are also pecuhar to this architecture. They 
begin at the ground, and commonly cover nearly half the sur- 
face of the building. The doors and windows, which are 
within them, may be of any size, but these recesses are always 
as large as cu-cumstances will permit, and are the grand feature 
of every fagade. 

This magnificent mausoleum is enclosed in a quadrangle, 
nearly four hundred yards square, which was formerly laid 
out as a garden, with marble fish ponds and other decorations, 
but is now neglected and uncared for. The quadrangle is 
enclosed by a lofty embattled wall of redstone, with towers 
and four fine gateways. Being a place of considerable sk*ength, 
the enclosure of this tomb as well as that of Sufdur Jung's 



Delhi. 



249 



mausoleum, were formerly used as places of refuge by the 
inhabitants of the suburbs during the incursions of the Maha- 
rattas. It was here that the King of Delhi took refuge after 
the capture of the city last autumn ; and here he was taken 
prisoner by Captain Hodgson. ISTothing can give a better idea 
of the immense moral superiority of the European over the 
native, than this daring achievement. The enclosure, I have 
said, was strong, far stronger than the Residency at Lucknow. 
The king was within, surrounded by troops of armed follow- 
ers. The Englishman was alone, far away from all help, and 
accompanied only by fifty black suwars (horsemen) who could 
not be relied on. He ordered the king to come out, promis- 
ing him only his own life, and that of his favourite wife and 
her son. The disj^roportion of these commands mth Captain 
Hodgson's power of enforcing them would be ludicrous were 
it not for the imminent danger to which he was exposed, and 
the confidence in himself and his race which he displayed. 
He knew the native character, and felt sure that under the 
cifcumstances no native would have the sj)irit to resist a com- 
mand. The king yielded at once, and set forth with his fol- 
lowers towards the city. The procession moved at a foot pace, 
the road was bad, on every side were tombs and other ruins 
that would serve for ambush or refuge, but Hodgson coolly 
rode by the side of his prisoner, with drawn sword ready to 
kill him should a rescue be attem^^ted. All around were thou- 
sands of armed men, any one of whom might have shot that 
lonely Englishman without dread of the consequence, but not 
a man dared to Hft his hand ; all were cowed by the calm 
courage and undaunted confidence of his expression. That 
was the grand triumph of the Anglo-Saxon blood. A native 
may fight as well as another when excited ; he will even risk 
his life more readily than a Euroj)ean, but there is not a man 
in India who will not quail before an Englishman's eyes, and 
tremblingly obey his commands. 

During the recent mutiny, English courage has nobly sup- 
ported its ancient reputation. Feeble companies have borne 
the attack of countless adversaries, ladies have shot down the 
wretches who dared to assail their life and their honour, and 

11* 



250 India* 

have then killed themselves to avoid a "vvorse fate. Eveiy^ 
where the odds were a thousand to one. Everywhere the 
war was one of extermination, yet not one Englishman ever 
despaired, not one ever doubted the result of the struggle. 
But in the long list of acts of individual heroism which have 
distinguished this above all modern wars, and which, when 
We hear them told, carry us back to the days of chivalry, I 
think no single action is so thoroughly characteristic of Brit- 
ish pluck, as the capture of the King of Delhi by Captain 
Hodgson* 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

DELHI AND UMBALA. 

The Saint's Tomb— A Eoyal Cemetery— A Victim of the Engllsli— The Old Fort— A 
Nacb at Mr. Skinner's — The Dinner — The Girls — Their Songs — Dancing Boys — Na- 
tive Gentlemen — Snakes — The Bazars of Delhi — The Streets — A Native "Wedding — 
A "Public Night" at the Mess of the 54th— Dak to Umbala— Sick— A Dandy 
Servant — "Vengeance is Sweet" — Sepoy Bands — The Native Army — Cashmeer 
Shawls. 

Fkom Hoomaioon's tomb I went to a village, half a mile 
north, where is bmied a celebrated Moosulman saint, Nizam- 
ood-Deen, who died in the early part of the fomteenth century. 
The tomb is within a court paved with marble. It is a small 
but very beautiful white marble building, surrounded by a 
colonnade, and covered by a dome. Between the pillars of 
the colonnade are scarlet cloth purdahs, or curtains. In the 
centre of the building the body of the saint lies in a low 
sarcophagus of marble, which is covered with silk brocade, 
strewn with fresh flowers. The sanctity of this shrine is such 
that it still attracts pilgrims from all parts of India, whose 
contributions keep tlie tomb in order. Within this court-yard 
are buried several members of the imperial family, among 
others, the Emperor Mohummud Shah, during whose reign 
the invasion of ISTadur Shah took place. Close by is the tomb 
of Prince Mirza Jehangeer, who was banished by the English 
government from Delhi, on account of frequent attempts to 
murder his elder brother, and excite insurrection. He killed 
himself by drinking cherry brandy, of which liquor he used 
to swallow a glass an hour, limiting himself to that amount, 
in order to protract the pleasure and delay intoxication. He 
was the favourite son of the old Emperor, who always be- 
lieved that he died of " sighing." At his death, the limited 
resources of the imperial purse were drawn on to give him a 



252 India. 

handsome tomb in this place. Many other tombs he around, 
among which the most remarkable is that of Jehanara Be- 
goom, the eldest daughter of Shah Jehan, and a very lovely 
character. All these tombs are of the same character. They 
are plain, square marble structures, about six feet long and 
two feet high, surrounded by screens of that exquisite marble 
trellis-work which is so beautiful a feature of Moosulman 
architecture. The tomb of Jehanara is shaped like the others, 
arid, hke themj is surrounded by a screen ; but it is not 
covered with a slab. At its head is a stone, containing an 
inscription dictated by herself, and explaining this peculiarity. 
It runs as follows : " Let no rich canopy cover my grave. 
This grass is the best covering for the tomb of the poor in 
spu'it. The humble, the transitory Jehanara, the disciple 
of the holy men of Christ, the daughter of the Emperor Shah 
Jehan." The allusion to Christ is thought by some to signify 
that she had become a convert of the Romish priests, others 
suppose that she belonged to some Moosulman sect who partic- 
ularly revered the character of Jesus. When Shah Jehan 
was imprisoned by his son Aurumzeeb, Jehanara voluntarily 
resigned her liberty, and accompanied her father into confine- 
ment, where she continued with him till his death. She died 
soon afterwards — ^poisoned, it is said, by her sister. 

Close to these tombs is a baolee, or deep tank, about sixty 
feet square, similar to that near the Kootub. Here the same 
feats of diving, which I had seen at the former place, were 
repeated ; but the leap is far higher, being at least sixty feet. 

On the way back to Delhi, I stopped to see the Poorana 
Khila, or old Fort, which was formerly the centre of the old 
Pathan city of Delhi. It is a very large building, w^ith -high 
and massive walls, of dark coloured stone. The top of the 
walls was plain, not decorated vath those arched battlements 
which distinguish the later Moosulman fortresses. The in- 
terior of the " Old Fort" is now occupied by an extensive 
village of mud huts, but it still contains a very large and mas- 
sive tomb of redstone, and another considerable building in 
good repair. 

That evening I dined at Mr. Skinner's, or, as he is called 



Delhi and Umbala. 253 

by the natives, Sekundur Sahib — Sekundur, being the Hin- 
doostanee pronunciation of Alexander, which is his first name. 
The party was very large, as nearly all the officers in the gar- 
rison were invited, I suppose fifty sat down to table. All 
the guests sent their own servants, plates, and silver — which 
is always customary in India where many are invited. As I 
was not aware of this habit, I was rather at a loss, having 
come without servant or plates ; but my friend. Captain Rus- 
sell, was kind enough to provide me with all that was neces- 
sary, and lend me one of his two Khitmutgras. 

Mr. Skinner is a half caste, almost black in complexion. 
His father, the celebrated Colonel Skinner, whom I mentioned 
before, left his property to each of his sons in succession, on 
the condition that a certain large portion of it should be spent 
yearly in entertainments. Accordingly, the hospitality of the 
Skinners became famous in India, and the races, hunts, cours- 
ing-matches, dinners, and nach parties, which they gave, were 
considered one of the chief attractions of Delhi as a Station. 

The house where this dinner w^as given was situated on the 
square near the Cashmeeree Gate, and opposite the church of 
St. James. It was built by Colonel Skinner, and w^as a spacious 
one-storied mansion, in a compound filled with shrubbery. 

Mr. Skinner having a great de^l more black blood than 
white in his veins, conformed in many respects to native 
usages, and kept a zenana, where he had several wives and 
concubines. One of the latter was said to be a sister of his 
eldest wife. These Httle peculiarities cut him off from the so- 
ciety of the ladies of the station, but he always found guests 
enough among the officers to enable him to comply with the 
hospitable provisions of his father's will. 

The dinner was of the best that could be had, and on the 
most liberal scale, and the usual amount of " beershurab" and 
" simpkin," as the natives call ale and champagne, were con- 
sumed in honouring the old customs of drinking healths and 
toasting, which still reign in India. 

After dinner we retired into a large drawing-rootn, where 
the remainder of the evening was spent in witnessing the per- 
formances of some nach girls. 



1|4 India. 

I had always heard a great deal of these bayaderes, so that 
I expected a treat ; particularly, as Delhi is famous throughout 
India for its dancing girls, and Mr. Skinner would, of course, 
have the best that could be procured. The result, however, 
very much disappointed my expectations. 

The girls were ten in number, of whom not more than two 
performed at the same time. They were dressed in pa?^jama, 
or trowsers, of velvet, silk, or muslin, which reached to below 
the ankle, and trailed on the ground. These trowsers are so 
loose that they sometimes contain fifteen or twenty yards of 
stuff. The upper part of the body is entirely covered by 
a muslin saree, wrapped many times round the person, and 
brought over the head. The colours of the dress are gener- 
ally green and red. The clothes of several of these girls 
were embroidered with gold thread, and they all Vv^ore gold 
armlets, anklets, nose-rings, ear-rings, and another ornament, 
which is a great favourite among Indian beauties, and consists 
of a precious stone, set in gold, which is glued to the forehead 
between the eyes, and really has a very pretty effect on the 
bro'wn skin. Their hair was plainly dressed " a la Chinoise"— ~ 
a mode which should be called " a I'Indienne," for it is univer- 
sal in India, and by no means so in China. Of course, they 
wore no shoes, as natives never do in the house, but the soles 
of their feet and palms of their hands were stained red with 
^' heena," and the languishuig expression of their dark eyes 
was heightened by a border of kohl, or antimony, around the 
edge of the lids. 

The songs they sang were in Persian, and were of two 
kinds.* The first was very simple, both in words and music, 
consisting merely of a repetition of such words as, " Oh, ray 
mother-in-law, go to the river and fetch water," or, " My be- 
loved prince, take me to Calcutta, with howdah on elephant, 
saddle on horse." The second variety they sung in the latter 
part of the evening. They were Amoebean strains, sustained 
by two voices, and representing a quarrel between women. 
The words were all curses, so foul that I do not believe they 
could have been invented out of India. 

As the girls sang they swayed the body to and fro, bent 
* See Appendix, at the end of the Book. 



Delhi and Umbak. Ij'j; 

tte hand upon the wrist, and assumed other positions, beating 
the feet upon the ground in time with the music, and jin^ 
gliiig the circles of silver bells which they wore around the 
ankles. 

The girls had each two or three musicians, jaunty-looking 
Moosulmans, who accompanied them upon the drum, sitai' 
(native guitar), and other instruments. The drum was played 
with the fingers ; and there were no wmd instruments used, 
The music was in general slow and monotonous, as were also 
the postures of the girls'^— for their movements can scarcely 
be called dancingr. 

The nach girls are a iDCCuliar class. Their lives are spent in 
debauchery, and they will drink more raw spirits than most 
men I have seen. Like women of the same character else* 
where, they do not bear children, but instead thereof they buy 
mfants, sometimes from their parents, sometimes from kid^ 
nappers or slave dealers ; for slavery, although abolished by 
law, still exists as a domestic institution in India. These chil- 
dren they train up to their trade, and it is said that their edu- 
cation must begin in early life, or they can never acquire the 
requisite grace and suppleness. The consequence of this 
strange custom is, that this class present the peculiar spectacle 
of women who never have had the slightest idea of virtue or 
modesty. Some of these dancing girls whom I saw at Colonel 
Skinner's brought two or three of these children with them. 
They were pretty little timid girls of five or sis years old, 
with very graceful and winning manners; but when once en- 
couraged to talk, they uttered sentiments and expressions 
which would brins: a blush to the oldest habituee of the 
Haymarket. 

The nach girls are rarely handsome — they say that all the 
good-looking ones are at once seized by the native princes 
for their zenanas. How this may be, I do not know, but some 
of them have certainly risen to positions of eminence and great 
power in Eastern courts. Their voices are very high, and fre- 
quently harsh and nasal — but that is not esteemed a defect. 
The ordinary pay is from five to ten rupees an evening, but 
some of them, who are very graceful, and have particularly 



256 India. 

high voices (for good looks and a sweet tone are not taken 
into consideration), occasionally get as high as five hundred 
rupees a night. 

The entertainments at Colonel Skinner's were varied by the 
introduction of some nach boys. They were about seven 
years old, and although they did not possess the same undu- 
lating grace as the girls, their voices were sweeter, and they 
sang with more spirit, so that they were quite as interesting. 
They were dressed in clothes similar to those worn by the 
nach girls, and they danced in the same way. The characters 
of these boys were, if possible, more degraded than those of 
the women. 

During the evening three Moosulmans, of high rank, joined 
the party. The eldest of the three was a thick-set man, of 
about forty, with a dark skin, and bushy black beard. He 
wore a very rich dress of blue cloth, embroidered with gold, 
and a large red turban, worked with gold thread. The other 
two were yonnger, and had much lighter complexions, and no 
beards. They were dressed simply in white, but wore kum- 
murbunds and turbans of fine Cashmeer shawls. 'None of the 
three was armed, and they all took off their shoes before en- 
tering the room. Their manners had a high-bred polish, which 
would have done honour to a nobleman of the court of Ver- 
sailles, and which is often found in natives of rank. I was 
particularly interested by the youngest two, who had very 
pleasing countenances, and regretted that I could not con- 
verse with them, since they did not speak English, I after- 
wards learned that they were near relatives of Shumsh-ood- 
Deen, who was hung at Delhi for the murder of his patron 
and friend, Mr. Frazer. 

These native gentlemen, as well as my host, and a few of 
the officers, smoked their hookahs the whole evening. This is 
undoubtedly the most luxurious form of smoking. The hookah 
is similar in principle to a Turkish narghile, but is much larger, 
Und many persons keep servants whose only business is to 
attend to their hookahs. The smoke of these pipes has a very 
pleasant smell, the tobacco being perfumed, and the smoke 
being conducted through rose-water. They were formerly 



Delhi and Umbala. 257 

much used, and have this advantage, that it is allowable to 
smoke them at table in the presence of ladies, or in a drawing- 
room. Of late years, however, many new English ideas have 
been introduced, among which is the smoking of cigars and 
pipes, and I suppose hookahs will soon be entirely out of 
fashion among Europeans. 

The people of India — men, women, and children — all smoke. 
Tobacco is so common and cheap as to be within the reach 
even of the poorest, and smoking is almost the only consola- 
tion of the poor ryut, whose idea of enjoyment is limited to 
perching like a monkey on the top of some wall, mth his be- 
loved hookah at his lips. 

The next morning, as soon as I awoke, my servant told me 
that there was a snake-man, (samp-wala,) as the natives call 
snake charmers, outside the bungalow, who longed to have the 
honour of amusing me. Accordingly, I opened the Venetians, 
and found two or three black fellows squatted on the veran- 
dah, with some earthen chattees, or pots, which contained the 
snakes. The natives made their salam, and the performance 
commenced. One of the ,men played on two pipes, the ends 
of which were fitted into a hollow gourd, into which he blew. 
As soon as the music began, his companion removed the cover 
of a chattee from which a large cobra soon reared his head. 
The snake seemed to be so pleased at getting his hberty, as 
to be quite peaceably inclined, and had to be poked with 
a stick before he became angry. When his temper was ex- 
cited, he dilated the skin of his neck, which stood out several 
inches from his head, in shape like a monk's hood. It is from 
this remarkable property of this animal, that it derives its 
name of " cobra di capello," or " snake of the hood." The 
name was first applied by the Portuguese, and was afterward? 
adopted by the English. After the snake had come out of 
his pot, he looked around for a moment, and then stiffening 
his body, he raised his head a foot from the ground, and gazed 
at the musician, at the same time swinging himself slightly 
from side to side, which I was informed w^as dancing. It was 
certainly quite as much like that exercise, as the performances 
of the nach girls, the night before. I was afi:erwards shown 



258 India. 

other snakes of various kinds, and a mungoos was finally pro- 
duced, who concluded the entertainment by killing several of 
them. 

After breakfast, I walked out through the different bazars, 
and made several purchases. Delhi is famous for its shawls, 
made in imitation of those of Cashmeer ; I saw a number of 
very fine ones. Another manufacture in which the artificers 
of Delhi excel, is the gold and silver jewellery, and especially 
filagree work, which is even finer than that made by the Chi- 
nese. The artists of Delhi are very celebrated for their 
exquisite miniatures upon ivory, the execution of which is as 
good as anything of the sort I ever saw in America. They 
represent public buildings, and celebrated personages; the 
pictures of buildings being much the best, as the anatomy of 
the figures is defective. I used to think that some one of 
these fellows must have taken lessons of a European, and that 
the rest of them only copied his pictures, because Delhi is the 
only town in India where you see any even tolerable pictures 
by natives, and at Delhi all the likenesses of the same indi- 
vidual which you may see, no matter by whom taken, resem- 
ble one another in every minute detail of dress, posture, and 
expression. 

The streets of Delhi are very gay, much gayer than those 
of any other native town which I saw, and I found much in- 
terest and amusement in observing the people. The Moosul- 
mans in Delhi seemed to me to have nothing to do but to 
strut about, and show their fine clothes. But I do them in- 
justice — they have one serious occupation, and that is, flying 
kites, which they construct with so much skill, that they do 
not require tails, as in other countries. The expression on tlie 
faces of these dandy Moosulmans was one of the most insuffer- 
able arrogance and insolence ; equally removed from the timid 
manner and cunning smile of the Bengalee, and from the 
really martial, though somewhat gasconading bearing of the 
Rajpoot. To afford food for the bodies of this noble race, 
shops of confections and sweetmeats occupied every corner, 
while the constant tomashas^ or shows, which were to be seen 
in the streets, nourished and strengthened their minds. Of 



Delhi and Umbala. 259 

these shows, there were two kinds : the stanclarcl, and the oc- 
casional. Among the standard shove's were jugglers and 
snake-charmers ; but by far the most popular of all was a rude 
sort of puppet-show, infinitely inferior to Punch. This amuse- 
ment was not, hke the performance of that hero, intended for 
the diversion of children, but was witnessed by crowds of men 
with shouts of admiration and enthusiasm. 

Among the occasional shows, weddings were the most com- 
mon and most 23opuIar. In India, this ceremony generally 
takes place when the parties to the marriage are not more 
than seven or eight years old. The wedding lasts eight or 
nine days, and is celebrated with as much pomp as the circum- 
stances of the families will allow. Once performed, the mar- 
riage is indissoluble, although the bjide does not reside with 
her husband nntil she is sixteen years old. Should the hus- 
band die in th'^ meantime, his bride is considered a widow, 
and by the Hindoo law a widow can never marry again, a 
custom which is productive of great immorality, and a thou- 
sand evil consequences. I saw several marriage processions, 
but none so imposing as one of a Rajah's son, which is de- 
scribed by Mrs. Mackenzie. I extract the description, both 
because she teUs the story better than I could hope to do, and 
because the thing described was grander than any similar 
scene which I witnessed. Occasionally I have taken the 
liberty of altering a phrase, to make the meaning clearer. 
Mrs. Mackenzie occupied a mndow in the Chandee chok. She 
says : " The procession was joassing down the street, on the 
side furthest from ns, and turning at the end of the street, it 
paraded before the bride's house, which was a little way above 
us, and then came close under our windows. It was more 
than a mile long ! The balconies and flat roofs of the houses, 
which were generally low, were covered with people; here 
was a variegated group of men and children, there a bevy of 
shrouded Mahommedan women. The gay dresses of the 
crowd gave it the appearance of a bed of tulips. 

" Just as we had seated ourselves, numbers of empty pal- 
kees were passing; then a crowd of tonjons, some empty, 
Bome with one or two children in them. Many of these were 



26o India, 

gorgeously dressed in brocade or velvet, with Greek caps of 
gold or silver ; and some of them were borne by four men in 
scarlet, and attended by a man on each side with a chouree, 
or brush formed of the tail of the yak, or Thibet ox, to keep 
the flies away. All the friends of the bridegroom's family do 
him as much honour as they can, by sending their led horses, 
elephants, and vehicles of every description to swell the pro- 
cession. The ladies of the Emperor's family were also there 
in bullock-carts, with scarlet hangings. His Majesty had also 
sent his guards, and his camels carried small swivel cannon, 
which were fired at intervals. The led horses formed a very 
picturesque feature in the procession ; some of them were 
painted; a white one had his legs and tail dyed red with 
heena, and splashes of the same on his body, as if a bloody 
hand had been repeatedly laid on his side. Then came a 
body of men, dressed as English soldiers, at the Rajah's 
expense, and a band in the same costume played a Scotch 
melody. 'Next appeared a number of magnificent elephants, 
their faces elaborately painted in curious patterns, and their 
bodies gaily caparisoned in scarlet, green, and other bright 
colours. 

" On a small baby-elephant, most richly adorned, sat a Httle 
boy, with an aigrette of jewels in front of his turban. His 
dress was a robe of lilac gauze, edged with gold, reaching to 
his feet, and carefully spread out, fan-wise, on each side, as he 
sat astride on the elephant. Then came the little bridegroom, 
who was a mass of gold. He sat alone in his howdah, with a 
careful servant behind him; his turban was covered with 
a veil of gold tissue, which he held up with both hands, that 
he might see all that was going on. Bearers of peacock fans, 
and others with gold pillars walked by him, while his- elephant 
was as splendid as could be. A few other elephants closed 
the procession, the head of which now passed under our win- 
dows on its return. It consisted of huge trays filled with 
artificial flowers, the eflect of which, as we looked down the 
street, was exceedingly pretty, like a parterre of the gayest 
colours. Then there were moving pavihons, with beds of 
flowers in front of them, peacocks on the top, and bands of 



Delhi and Umbala. 261 

musicians inside. Such music ! fancy flutes in hysterics, drums 
in a rage, violins screaming with passion, and penny trumpets 
distracted with pain, and you will have a good idea of native 
harmony. A crowd of women and boys, of the humblest 
class, then appeared, carrying little flags. 

" Eastern processions are like Eastern life — comprising the 
greatest contrasts of poverty and magnificence. They seem 
to think that everything, no matter what, helps to make a 
show. After, and among, the moving flower-beds came trays 
of huge dolls, and others of little puppets, one set of which 
represented a party of European officers at dinner, with their 
khitmutgras w^aiting on them." These dolls were stuffed 
with sweetmeats, and were finally given up to be scrambled 
for by the crowd. They were followed by "several nach 
girls, sjDlendidly dressed in red and gold, their muslin trow- 
sers full of gathers, and very wide, and their long hair hang- 
ing down their backs. They were each carried by men on a 
canopied platform." The manners of these nach girls, and 
their postures, were bold to a degree which struck Mrs. Mac- 
kenzie as " most unpleasing in a woman ;" but it is not very 
clear what else she could expect. This closed the procession, 
but Mrs. Mackenzie drove to a point opposite the bridegroom's 
house, which was illuminated by torches. As soon as he 
entered, the gate was closed after him, a custom which re- 
minded her of the expression in the Gospel, " the bridegroom 
came, and they that were ready went in with him to the 
marriage ; and the door was shut." This description is written 
by a lady, and for that very reason is much more accurate and 
particular than if the scene had been observed and described 
by a man. I hope that its interest will be a sufficient excuse 
for its insertion. 

I dined that evening at the mess of the fifty-fourth regiment. 
It was a " public night," that is, an evening on which it is i:>er- 
mitted to any member of the mess to invite as many of his own 
acquaintances as he may choose. The officers of the other 
regiment then stationed at Delhi were present, so that with 
the exception of a few black-coated civiHans, who came by 
invitation, the company was the same that I had met at Colo- 



262 India. 

nel Skinner's. The evening was long and pleasant, and I did 
not return to the dak-bungalow till midnight. 

I left Delhi in garrhee for Umbala, on the morning of ISTo- 
vember 29th. My intention was to make a rapid tour through 
the Punjab, which I supposed could be accomplished in a 
little over two weeks. In order to accomplish the trip in this 
time, I meant to travel beyond Umbala by the mail-cart, 
which goes ten miles an hour, only stopping to change horses. 
Although this conveyance is fatiguing and exposing, I felt 
quite in a condition to endure it, and accordingly left my ser- 
vant, and all my luggage except a small carpet-bag, at Delhi. 

The bridges not being comj^leted beyond Peeplee, ninety 
miles from Delhi, the garrhees do not run beyond that place. 
The remaining thirty miles I went by dhoolee, and arrived at 
Umbala on the morning of the thirtieth. I had been in robust 
health up to the time of leaving Delhi, and started from that 
place with every prospect of a pleasant and rapid trip. But 
after entering the dhoolee at Peeplee I began to be troubled 
with the premonitory symptoms of dysentery, and was much 
relieved when deposited at Umbala dak-bungalow. Once 
there, I soon found that it would be impossible to think of 
continuing my trip on that day ; so I determined to go to bed 
and endeavour to cure myself as soon as possible. Unfortu- 
nately, however, I mistook the nature of my complaint, and 
commenced doctoring myself with mutton broth, beef-steak, 
and hot brandy punch — a course of treatment which, by the 
following day, threw me into a high fever. The next morn- 
ing I felt very ill, and began to think how I could get medical 
advice — not a very easy question to answer, for the only phy- 
sicians on an Indian station are the surgeons attached to the 
various regiments. I was engaged in puzzling my brains on 
this question, and had almost made up my mind to do with- 
out a doctor, when the postmaster came in to give me notice 
that I must leave the dak-bungalow, as several parties required 
the apartment which I occupied, and no traveller can claim 
accommodation in one of these establishments for more than 
twenty-four hours. I was in a complete dilemma — so ill that 
I could hardly move, without medical attendance and shelter, 



Delhi and Umbala. 263 

or any claim on any one for either. I now regretted tliat I 
had not taken the letters which my friends in Delhi offered 
me to their friends in Umbala. My perplexity was fortunately 
relieved by the arrival of Mr. Vauquelin, the assistant agent 
of the dak company, in the carriages of which I had come from 
Calcutta. As soon as he saw my condition, he at once offered 
me the use of the bungalow belonging to Mr. Powell, the 
dak agent, who had gone to Rawul Pindee — Mr. Yauquelin, 
who invited me, having charge of the business. 

I had very comfortable quarters at Mr. Powell's, whither I 
was carried in a dhoolee. The bed had sheets, between a 
pair of which I had not slept since leaving Calcutta ; a mat- 
trass, even, being a stray luxury in dak-bungalows and Mofus- 
sil hotels, the beds of which generally have bottoms of cane, 
or of plaited cotton listing, like those used by the natives. 
Such a couch, with a sheet spread over it, makes much the 
best bed in hot weather. In cold weather of course a mat- 
trass is used ; and travellers generally carry one with them, 
and find it useful in the dak-garrhee, and almost necessary in 
the dhoolee. Indian travelling has this peculiarity : the more 
baggage you have the more comfortable you are. Your bag- 
gage is no trouble to you, being all taken care of by your ser- 
vants, and if you do not carry your own comforts with you, 
you will not find them on the way. Many men take even 
their wash-basins with them. I shall know better if I ever go 
to India again, but on this occasion, being inexperienced, I took 
with me neither sheets nor mattrass. On this part of my trip I 
was even worse provided than durmg the rest of my journey, 
for, having left my servant and luggage in DeUii, in expecta- 
tion of travelling by dak-cart, and having with me only the 
few indispensable articles that could be contained in a very 
small carpet-bag, I was of course quite unprepared for a 
month's sickness and detention, which was my lot at Umbala. 

Mr. Vauquelin provided me with a physician, a young 
assistant-surgeon, who, on first seeing me was forcibly struck, 
as he afterwards confessed, with the impression that he would 
have the pleasure of attending my funeral. The disease with 
which I was affected is very dangerous in India, and I had it 



264 India. 

in an aggravated form, so that the doctor's apprehensions 
were not without foundation, particularly as several soldiers, 
who were taken down at the same time, and whose symptoms 
were not so bad as mme, died within a week. 

I was waited on, or rather ought to have been waited on, 
by a young and dandified Moosulmau servant, to whom I 
promised abundant bucksees if he would take good care of 
me. But seeing that I could not get out of bed to chastise 
him and enforce obedience, he used to absent himself nearly 
all day, so that I was quite alone except two visits a day from 
the doctor, and one from Mr. Yauquelin. For this treatment 
on the part of my servant I kept nursing up feelings of re- 
venge, and at length I had an opportunity of paying him off. 
For the first few days the doctor would not let me eat any- 
thing, but on the third day he told me that I might have a 
little arrow-root in the evenmg. The method of preparing 
this article of food was fully explained to the " bearer," and 
he faithfully promised to have it ready at eight o'clock. Ac- 
cordingly I kept awake past my usual hour of going to sleep, 
but eight o'clock came, and no bearer ; another hour passed — 
it was nine, and still no signs of the servant. Yet another 
hour I lay there, almost frantic with the mingled emotions of 
hunger, sleepiness, hope deferred, and impotent rage. At 
length at ten o'clock my dandy made his aj^pearance. He 
brought me my supper. At the sight of it all my anger van- 
ished. I seized the bowl with eagerness, and beheld — not the 
rich gelatinous mass, upon the expectation of which my fancy 
had been gloating for twelve hours, but a pint of tepid water 
upon which floated some lumps of undissolved arrow-root. 
This was too much for a sick man's endurance. I knew the 
fellow would not have dared to treat me so if he had supposed 
that I was well enough to get out of bed and chastise him for 
his carelessness and inattention. I felt as if my life depended 
on that bowl of arrow-root, and having tasted one spoonful of 
the nauseous mixture, and spit it all back again into the bowl, 
my long pent up exasperation found vent, and I threw the 
whole thing at the fellow's head. It did not hurt him much, 
but it deprived him of caste. The food which I had tasted 



Delhi and Umbala. 265 

had touched his lips. " Oh ! Representative of God, oh ! 
Releaser of Slaves, oh ! Provider for the Poor," he cried, " I 
am dead ! my caste is gone !" I told him that he ought to 
take more care of a sick man, and the lesson had a good effect, 
as he was pretty attentive after this occurrence. The next day 
the other Moosulman servants held a Panchayut, or Council 
of Five, over him, and read him out of caste — a thing they do 
on the least pretext, as the person so ejected has to give them 
a feast to procure his readmission. All the rest of the time 
that I remained at Umbala this servant kept wearying me 
with entreaties for three rupees to give the above-mentioned 
feast. Sometimes he would put his head under my feet, and 
after my recovery, whenever I went out, I was sure to find 
him on my way ready to prefer his prayers. But, although 
wearied with his importunities, I never gave him anything for 
the purpose, as I considered it a very just punishment, and 
besides, the wages which I paid him, and which were far more 
than he had earned, were amply sufficient to defray these ex- 
penses, and leave something over for his trouble. 

My days passed rather wearily. I was awakened before 
dawn by the morning gun, and bugles sounding the reveille. 
From that time sleep was impossible. The thunder of artil- 
lery and the rattle of small arms lasted until eight. From 
that time there were no events, except the visit of the Doctor 
and Mr. Vauquelin. I used to lie in bed and calculate the 
probability of dying from the length of the Doctor's face. I 
even began writing a letter, to be sent home in case of my 
demise. 

After a week's starvation, we got rid of the fever, and I 
began rajoidly to mend. As soon as I could get out of bed, I 
went in a dhoolee to the station hotel, as Mr. Powell, whose 
room and bed I had been occupying, was expected back soon. 

The hotel was very pleasant and comfortable. I remained 
tliere over ten days, and gained rapidly in strength and 
v/eight, both of which had been much reduced during my short 
illness. In one week I had lost twenty pounds of flesh. 

Umbala was a very large station, and a band from some one 
of the native regiments used to play every evening on the 

12 



266 India. 

parade-ground, where all the fashion of the station congrega- 
ted. I frequently went there to hear the music, which was 
quite good. There is never any difficulty in forming a band 
of natives. Almost every man has the requisite ear and skUl, 
and they learn the European notation with wonderful facility ; 
but they never could be made to play with any spirit. It 
seemed as if they never entered into the meaning of occidental 
music. However, it is much the most fashionable among the 
natives. At their great weddings and feasts they always 
engage, if possible, the services of musicians who play English 
tunes ; and it is said that a few days before Lucknow was 
captured this spring, the bands of fifty-three regiments had 
united in a monster concert, while the leaders of the mutineers 
were celebrating a great banquet. 

During my stay at XJmbala, and after my return to Delhi, I 
saw a good deal of the sepoys, in their every day life. Their 
dwellings, like those of other natives, are mere mud huts, which 
the soldiers of each regiment generally build for themselves. 
When off duty, the sepoys wore a dhotee of coarse cotton 
wound around the loins, and forming below a loose trowser, 
which reached as far as the knee, and was open at the back of 
the leg. They were usually beautifully formed men, very tall, 
and rather thin. The upper part of the body was commonly 
clothed in a short white jacket, with tight sleeves ; and on the 
head they wore a white cotton skull-cap, jauntily set on one 
side. Being of high-caste, warriors by birth and profession, 
and also, as they expressed it, " servants of the warrior com- 
pany," they felt a pride in themselves and contempt for the 
ordinary natives, which they showed very clearly in every 
motion, as well as in their intercourse with the common 
people. Whenever they met a European they always gave 
the military salute, by stopping, facing about, drawing up the 
body to its full height, and then extending the arm and bring- 
ing it round with a sweep, on a level with the shoulder, until 
the thumb of the right hand rested on the forehead. I have 
read recently an article in an Enghsh periodical, blaming the 
English residents for not having foreseen the late mutiny. 
Among other things, the author says that the " officers re- 



Delhi and Umbala. 267 

ceived daily, the resj^ectful salutes of the men ; they replied 
to them, as a matter of course, and drove on regardless of the 
flashing eye, which gave the lie to the outward respect of the 
act," — these are not the exact words, but they convey the 
meaning, and I only quote them because I wish distinctly to 
assert that I do not believe the writer, or any one else, ever 
saw any flashing eyes, unless he returned the sepoy's salute 
with his left hand, whicli is, with them, a great insult. 

The native commissioned ofiicers, although they took rank 
with the EngHsh captains and lieutenants, and were paid 
many times as much as the common sepoys, did not seem to 
be at all above them, in social j^osition. They lived in the 
same mud huts, and might be seen squatted naked on the 
ground, cooking their food in a mud furnace. After the late 
rebellion, they rejected their native titles, and became colonels, 
captains, and lieutenants of the revolted regiments. In fact, 
one of the most remarkable features of the rebellion is the 
way in which all the revolted troops preserved the organiza- 
tion given them by the EngHsh. They always made a point 
of carrying ofl" the regimental colours. This is j^erhaps not 
so wonderful, as they were in the habit of worshipping them 
as gods ; but it is strange, that they should continue as 
they did to wear the uncomfortable English uniform, and that 
they should even impose this dress upon the new levies which 
they raised durmg the revolt. 

There are a number of shawl dealers in Umbala, who used 
to bring their wares to the hotel for me to see. The shawls 
nearly all come from the Punjab, only a few from Cashmeer. 
All shawls that come to this country from India are called 
" Cashmere," or " Camel's Hair," but really, there are scarcely 
any true Cashmeeree shawls in America — and none anywhere 
of " Camel's Hair." The Cashmeeree shawl is made of the 
inner wool of the Thibet goat, which is brought from Ladak 
in Thibet, and woven into a fabric called j^^shmeena, which 
forms the basis and centre of the Cashmeeree shawl. The 
embroidery of the shawls is sometimes looven^ sometimes 
^corked loith the needle^ in either case the work is done by 
men, and requires an incredible amount of time. The Ma- 



268 India. 

harajah of Cashmeer does not allow any of the workmen 
to leave his clommions. If caught attempting to escape they 
are hung ; but, notwithstanding this risk, many of them have 
made their escape to the Punjab, where, at the towns of 
Labor, Loodiana, and Umritsur, they have long established 
manufactories of shawls, from which the markets of the West 
are supplied. Every shawl manufactured in Cashmeer, has a 
few square inches of work left incomplete. After the shawl 
is bought, it is finished in the private manufactory of the 
Maharajah, where it pays him about one hundred per cent, of 
its value, as duty. This regulation also gives the Maharajah 
the opportunity of ascertaining the party to whom the shawl 
is sold — which he always wishes to know, as he will not 
allow the shawls to be sold to traders. 



• CHAPTER XXIV. 

RETUEN TO DELHI. 

Desei-tiou— Life of an Indian Officer— Christmas Evening at Mr. Beresford's— Tlie Mutiny 
at Delhi— Murder of my Friends— Fate of the Beresfords— The Eevolted Emperor's 
Government— The City while held by the Mutineers— Uniform Defeats of the 
Mutineers— The Siege and Assault— Taking of the City and Flight of the Mutineers 
—News of the Taking of Delhi— The City after its Occupation by the English- 
Wholesale Punishment. 

It was nearly too weeks after I moved to the hotel, before 
the doctor considered me strong enough to continue my jour- 
ney. I had to give up my intended trip through the Punjab, 
having spent at Umbala all the time and money which I had 
appropriated to it. After I became strong enough to sit up, 
the time passed very pleasantly. The hotel was remarkably 
well kept, the weather was just cool enough for a fire, there 
were two officers lodging at the hotel en permanence^ whose 
company I found very agreeable, and we had a constant suc- 
cession of pleasant guests. 

At length, on the 22d of December, the doctor told me I 
might leave ; and on the evening of that day, having bid good- 
bye to my acquaintances, and thanked Messrs. Yauquelin and 
Powell very warmly for all their kindness to me, I started in 
a dhoolee toward Delhi. About the middle of the night I was 
waked up by my palkee stopping, and on looking out was in- 
formed that four of my bearers had run away, and taken the 
back track in company with two other dhoolees, which we had 
met going toward Umbala. I at once jumped out, sick as I 
was, and clothed only in my night-dress, and ran barefoot for 
a quarter of a mile, followed by the mussalchee or torch- 
bearer. I came up with the other palkees and my truants, 
just as they were crossing a river. I began to think it was 
aU up now, as it was impossible for me to go in the water ; 



270 India. 

bnt, much to my surpiise, I enticed them out by threatening 
to jump in and kill them if they did not return. As soon as I 
got them on terra firma^ I asked them why they had deserted. 
As they could give no explanation, I tied them together with 
the turban of one of their number, and flo2:2!:ed them back to 
the dhoolee, where the head-man of the j)arty also bestowed 
some blows on account of himself and the other bearers. Had 
I not caught these fellows, I might have been obliged to pass 
all night on the road, as the four bearers who remained 
could not have carried me to Peeplee, five miles or more from 
the place where the difficulty occurred. 

In reading over my notes to my friends since my return, 
some of them have considered this occurrence a little extraor- 
dinary. But in truth those parts of the incident which excited 
their wonder were only those which were characteristic of the 
native character. In any other country it would seem strange 
that a sick man, entirely unarmed, could bind and beat four 
men, any one of whom was quite a match for him, even if he 
had been well. But in India it is the most natural thing in 
the world, and similar occurrences are constantly happening 
to every one. I felt quite sure there would be no resistance, 
and I am certain they never thought of offering any. The 
only difficulty I found was, that whenever I gave them a blow 
they would all fall down on the ground, yelling and joining 
their hands over the head, so that we did not get back to the 
palkee as soon as was desirable, considering that it was a 
cold night and I was scarcely clothed at all. 

On arriving at Delhi I put up at the bungalow of Lieuten- 
ants Anderson and Butler, as my friend Captain Russell, who 
had asked me to stay with him when I should return, was 
absent at a coursing meeting. 

I remained four days at Delhi, partly because the doctor 
had advised me not to travel fast, and partly because it was 
difficult to lay a dak, the horses being all taken up for several 
days by parties going up country. Although on some accounts 
this delay was annoying, yet on the whole I liked it, as I had 
very pleasant quarters, and could thus pass Christmas in 
civilized society. 



Return to Delhi. 



271 



During my stay I saw something of "the life of an Indian 
officer ;" which struck me as far from luxurious. Two men 
generally occu2)y a bungalow together. Each of the " chums" 
has one or two rooms to himself, and there is a large centre 
apartment which they have in common. The furniture con- 
sists of a bed, a table and a few chairs, generally of different 
patterns. The walls are bare or only decorated with an elk's 
head and horns, or some such trophy of the occupant's prow- 
ess. In one corner are a pair of foils and a gun. Against the 
wall are two large trunks, made to strap on a camel, which 
contain the officer's wardrobe. A few books in Persian and 
Hindoostanee, and the last magazine (six months old) lying 
on the table, complete the description of the " Oriental lux- 
ury" in which the young unmarried officers of the Comj)any's 
service live. 

As they advance in rank and pay, and particularly when 
they get married, they of com-se manage to collect around 
them some of the comforts of an English home — but still the 
above is a fair description of the interior of most of the bun- 
galows. 

The officer's life is as follows : He is wakened by his servant 
long before sunrise, dresses in uniform, and attends morning 
parade. This is over by seven or nine o'clock, according to 
the season. He then returns to his house, takes a bath, and 
dresses in civil costume. About ten, comes breakfast, known 
as hurra hazree^ or " great breakfast " to distinguish it from 
chota hazree^ or " little breakfast " which consists of a cup of 
tea or coffee and a bit of toast taken before the parade. Some 
officers prefer to take this first meal at the mess-house, and it 
is then called " coflee shop." The burra hazree usually in- 
cludes meat or fish or fruit, and is often followed by a hookah. 
Then comes business, either regimental, or the officer's study 
with a moonshee, or native interpreter — an occupation to 
which of late years they have been nearly all addicted. At 
two o'clock there is tiffin at the mess-house — cold meats, mulli- 
gatawney soup, and ale. After tiffin there is generally a game 
of billiards — nearly every regiment having a billiard table in 
its mess-house. After tiffin there are calls to be made on the 



272 India. 

ladies of the station, or else there is more regimental duty and 
study. At about five the officer dresses again in uniform and 
goes to the course (or drive around the parade-ground) either 
m buggy or on horseback. Here all the residents and ladies 
of the station are to be found on the afternoons when the 
band plays. If there is no band, the " afternoon parade " oc- 
cupies the time that would otherwise be spent on the course. 
Dinner comes as soon as it is dark, and concludes the day. 
As there are no other amusements for the evening, it is made 
as long as possible, and very pleasant indeed the dinners were 
of which I partook at the mess of the Fifty-fourth. After the 
table was cleared we would draw around the wood fire, some 
of the men smoking their hookahs, others cheroots. An hour 
or so would be passed in convei'sation, or a quiet game of 
cards, and by half-past nine or ten every man had returned 
home and gone to bed, in readiness for the early call next 
morning. 

On Christmas day I went with several officers to a large 
dinner at the house of Mr. Beresford, the manager of the 
Delhi bank. His house was a large and handsome mansion in 
the city, near the Chandee chok. It was built and at one 
time occupied by the Begoom Sombre or Sumroo of Sirdhana. 
Mr. Beresford came out to India as a common soldier in the 
Company's European army, and had raised himself by his tal- 
ents to the opulent position which he then enjoyed. The 
Misses Beresford, two very charming young ladies, who had 
just returned from England, where they had been educated, 
and other ladies of the station were present. 

After dinner we had music, and dancino- ; and the evening;' 
concluded with the old fashioned games of snap-dragon, blind- 
man's buff, and hunt-the-ring. At the latter. Colonel Riddle, 
who was on his way to Agra, to take charge of the newly- 
raised Third European regiment, distinguished himself 
greatly. Among the decorations of the room were several 
misletoe boughs, which had been brought with much trouble 
from the Himalayas, but there Avere so few young ladies that 
kissing would have been personal, so the old custom went 
unhonoured. 



Return to Delhi. ly^ 

Altogether the evening at Mr. Beresford's was one of the 
most delightful and homelike that I spent during my travels ; 
and the whole time that I spent at Delhi, became by the kind- 
ness and attention of the officers, one of the most agreeable 
periods of my journey. 

Four months after I left Delhi, one hot morning in May, 
the Christian inhabitants were startled by hearing that the 
mutinous Mahommedan cavalry of Meeruth were crossing the 
bridge and entering the city, massacring all the " infidels " on 
whom they could lay hands. 

The news was probably no less unexpected and unwelcome 
to the Hindoos, who, after the fashion of their people, at once 
shut uj) their shops and secreted their property. 

The officer in command of the Cashmeeree gate at once 
sent to cantonments for reenforcements. The sepoys of the 
Fifty-fourth, on learning the news, demanded to be led against 
the mutineers. Their request was complied with. As they 
marched to the city they vied with one another in professions 
of fidelity, and threats against the insurgents, but no sooner 
had they entered the gate and met the mutineers in the 
square before St. James' Church, than they separated on each 
side of the road, leaving their officers unprotected. My un- 
fortunate friends had felt so confident of the result that they 
had come out without even their side-arms. A suwar galloped 
U23 to each and pistolled him like a dog. 

The Christian mhabitants of Delhi, including the English, the 
half-castes and the native converts, concealed themselves as best 
they might, or sought safety in flight. All who were taken were 
mercilessly put to death. A few fled to the royal palace, and 
were promised protection by the Emperor, but they too were 
afterwards slain by his orders. 

The cantonments were plundered by the mutineers and rab- 
ble of the city. A very few of the officers and ladies escaped, 
some to Umbala, some to Meeruth. One party, comprising 
several ladies, entrusted themselves to a sepoy guard, who 
swore to protect them, but when they had conducted them to 
a secure^ place, turned round and butchered them. All who 
were found in the cantonments were slain, and among the hor- 

12* 



274 



India. 



rible sights that met the English troops when they arrived, 
was the body of a little boy, who had been nailed, head down- 
v^ards, to the wall of one of the bungalows, and so left to 
die. 

As I was travelling in Germany last summer, I met a Ger- 
man who had escaped from Agra during the mutiny. He 
told me of the fate of the Beresfords, which he had learned 
from a native who was m Delhi at the time. The details were 
sickening. The whole family, parents, and five children were 
" done to death " in the presence of each other, with such re- 
finements of mental and bodily torture as Hell itself might 
learn a lesson from. 

When the city was fairly in the hands of the revolted sol- 
diery, they proclaimed the supremacy of the Emperor, and 
established a sort of government, the forms of which seem to 
have been largely derived from those of their English masters. 
The Emperor was to be supreme, but had a " council," at the 
head of which was a "Seketur" (secretary). This council 
was composed of the "Kurnuls" of all the revolted regiments. 
A document emanating from it has been discovered, by which 
it appears that but few of these high oflicials could even sign 
their names. 

As the revolt spread through the Presidency, the mutinous 
troops all poured into Delhi. Their support must have been 
a tremendous burden on the Hindoo inhabitants. On the first 
day they shut up their shops, but afterwards they were or- 
dered by the Emperor's government to open them and sell 
their property to the soldiers considerably below cost. These 
orders being enforced by flogging and the fear of death, Avere 
complied with. By the same means large subsidies were forced 
from the reluctant bankers and other rich men — a class wholly 
composed of Hindoos, and the only class in the country 
who possess wealth, and have any very great stake in the pre- 
servation of order. They must often have cursed a state of 
afiairs, which compelled them to sup23ort, by their hard-earned 
wealth, the mad movement which was ruining them, and 
which forced them to contribute to the establishment of a gov- 
ernment under which they well knew how insecure would be 



Return to Delhi. 275 

the tenure of any property which they might preserve or ac- 
quire thereafter. 

While all this was going on, Delhi was besieged on the 
north side by a feelD^e force of English under General Anson, the 
commander-in-chief. They established themselves upon the 
range of low hills between the cantonments and city, the 
distance from the walls averaging three-quarters of a mile. 
Here they remained through the burning heat of an Indian 
summer. The want of guns and the paucity of their numbers 
prevented any offensive movements. One conimander-in-chief 
after another sickened and died — of cholera, it was said, but 
some persons think that native servants can produce cholera. 

Meanwhile the numbers of the mutineers received daily 
accessions ; they had two hundred heavy guns which they 
used with that skill for which the native artillerymen are 
famous ; the arsenal, in their hands, contained countless stores 
of warlike materiel. Every advantage of position, numbers, 
climate, and arms were theirs, and yet, all summer long, they 
never got the advantage in a single sortie. 

When it is recollected that these were men of that same 
sepoy army, which, fighting side by side Tvdth English troops, 
had gained by their bravery the admiration and applause of 
every General who commanded them, some may be inclined 
to wonder at their total want of success when fighting for them- 
selves, and they may even be condemned as cowardly. This 
would be a hasty and not a just decision. They might be 
cowards in our estimation, and yet their courage might not 
be less than that of a European, but only of a different kind. 
Asiatic courage is of one kind, European of another, and the 
former bows before the latter, just as the nations of Asia kneel 
before the supremacy of the European. The sepoys could 
fight as well as any, on the same side with Englishmen, but 
they were powerless against them. 

If any one thing has been demonstrated by the recent mu- 
tiny, it is the indescribable moralinferiority of Asiatic races. 
Great as has been the ukbal^' of the Enghsh, henceforth it is 
greater and more awful than ever in the eyes of the native. 

* Ukbal, a native term signifying '-good fortune" — or the "prestige which 
arises from success." 



276 India. 

So passed the summer of 1857, at Delhi. 

Early hi September the besiegmg force was strengthened 
by a siege train and additional forces from the Punjab. Their 
whole strength now amounted to 6,000 infafttry, 1,000 cavalry, 
and 600 artillery, including Ghoorkas and other native regi- 
ments. None of the reinforcements sent from England ar- 
rived in time. 

On the eleventh of September, the batteries, which con- 
tained only eight "S-inch howitzers, ten heavy mortars, and 
forty-two other guns, the heaviest of which were twenty-four 
pounders, opened fire. 

On the fourteenth the assault was made, principally on the 
Cashmeeree gate, which had to be blown in by gunpowder. 
The " forlorn hope " which undertook this arduous service 
had to advance in broad daylight to the gateway, in the teeth 
of a hot fire of musketry from above and through the gateway, 
and on both flanks. The powder bags were coolly laid and ad- 
justed, but Lieutenant Salkeld, who commanded the party, was 
by this time disabled, with two bullets in him. Sergeant 
Carmichael then attempted to fire the fuse, but was shot dead. 
Sergeant Burgess then tried and succeeded, but paid for the 
daring act with his life. Sergeant Smith, thinking that Bur- 
gess too had failed, ran forward, but seeing the train alight, 
had just time to throw himself into a ditch and escape the 
effects (*f the explosion. With a loud crash the gate was 
blown in, and through it the column entered the city, just as 
the other columns had carried the breaches in the walls. 

The English were now firmly established, but it was six 
days before the city was completely in then- power. The loss 
of the English during the siege was three thousand, or be- 
tween one-quarter and one-third of ail the troops that were at 
any time engaged. The assault cost eight hundred men — over 
eleven hundred, one-third of the force engaged, being put 
hors cle combat by death or wounds on the first day. 

The six days which intervened between the assault and the 
complete occupation of the city, were occupied by the muti- 
neers in decamping. The larger part of them went to Luck- 
now, but others escaped in different directions. The Emperor 



Return to Delhi. 277 

seems to have been abandoned Ify the sepoys. He also left 
the city, with a part of his family and a largo number of fol- 
lowers. The other inhabitants of Delhi did likewise, concealing 
or carrying away with them the most valuable part of their 
property, so that on the twentieth of September there was not 
a hving soul within the city exce^jt the English forces. The 
Palace and Jumma Miisjeed were occupied as quarters by the 
Punjab and Ghoorka regiments with a few English troops ; 
the i"est were quartered in various parts of the city. The 
houses of Mr. Skinner and Mr. Beresford, which I have men- 
tioned, were taken by the principal officers as quarters. 

Soon after the capture of the city, the Emperor and his 
favourite wife were taken by Captain Hodgson, as I have 
mentioned before, and brought as prisoners into the city. 
Three of the Shahzadehs, or Princes, who were wdth the old 
king, were shot by Captain Hodgson, who thus, (in order to 
prevent the chance of their escaping on the w^ay to the city,) 
forestalled what would have been their certain fate at the 
hands of the court-martial. All three of them had been in 
command of bodies of the mutineers, who seem to have 
deserted them when the city was taken. The youngest of the 
three, Aboo Bukhur, rivalled the w^orst of the mutineers in 
the atrocities which he committed, and is said to have hacked 
several poor creatures to pieces with his own hands. The 
bodies of these scions of royalty were brought to the city in a 
common bullock-cart, and thrown into the open sewer near 
the Kotwalee, or native mayor's office. An English officer 
writing home, says of this arrangement : " They lay open and 
exj^osed for any one that liked to see and take a lesson — a 
very ghastly and suggestive spectacle, I can assure you. How 
long they remained there I neither know nor care, but I sup- 
pose until, as in hfe so in death, they had become a foul and 
disgusting nuisance — rotten and intolerable." 

The Reverend William Butler, an American Methodist 
missionary, gives an interesting account of the appearance of 
Delhi after its capture. He had been driven from his station 
by the mutiny, and had taken refuge at Almora, on the Hima- 
layas. His description of the way in which he first learned 



278 India. 

the fall of Delhi, is too affecting not to be quoted. As he was 
sitting in his cottage, he heard a gun from the fort near by. 
"A brilliant hope flashed across my heart; I snatched my hat, 
and ran up the hill, while peal after peal thundered out, mak- 
ing even the Grand Himalayas reverberate. At last I gained 
the summit, and stood while I counted the ' Royal Twenty- 
one.' It needed no one to tell me what that meant, our 
commanding officer had received an express announcing that 
Delhi had fallen ! that Britain was triumphant ! 

" I stood there wrapped in thoughts that can never be for- 
gotten, and a luxury of feeling flowed through my very heart, 
that will make that moment a bright spot in my life and 
recollection forever. 

"How often before has the thunder of these British cannon 
jjroved the inlet of salvation to the oppressed and persecuted ! 
I am not the first American missionary to whom they have 
announced ' glad tidings of great joy.' I thought of Judson 
and his heroic wife, to whose ears, in his melancholy dungeon, 
these cheerful peals proclaimed approaching liberty. 

" None but those who, like ourselves, have been practically 
captive for months, not knowing but any day our doom might 
be sealed by the hand of violence, can imagine how every gun, 
as it rung the knell of the Moslem city and power, while it 
' proclaimed liberty' to the Christian and missionary of the 
cross — none but those so situated can appreciate the luxury ol 
such an hour as that. May Heaven bless the British ]N"ation ! 
May God save the British Queen ! Ah, yes ! and let every 
lover of liberty, of civilization, and of Evangelical Christianity 
in our own happy America, say, from the depths of his heart. 
Amen ! to that prayer !" 

Mr. Butler afterwards came to Delhi. He walked throus^h 
the Chandee chok which was wont to be thronged by gaily 
dressed crowds. N^ot a soul was to be seen, all was silence 
and utter desolation. The shops where the gold and jewels 
and precious shawls of India were sold, had all been plundered 
and gutted. The houses were open and tenantless. " The 
wretched cats were silently moping about, and the dogs 
howled mournfully in the desolate houses. Far rather would 



Return to Delhi. 279 

I see a city knocked down and covered in its ruins than 
behold a scene like this. A tomb, or Herculaneum, can be 
contemplated Avith interest ; but Delhi is now like an open 
grave, rifled of its contents, and its dishonoured condition 
lying bare to the gaze of day. 

"As I stood that night in the midst of this stern desolation I 
was forcibly reminded of the regular lesson in the calendar, for 
the 14th of September, the day in which the assault was given. 
The lesson was the third chapter of Kahum. It begins: 'Wo 
to the bloody city ; it is all full of lies and robbery ;' and the 
whole chapter is as applicable to Delhi, as it ever was to 
Nineveh ; and here was her ' woe,' and she is ' naked,' a ' gaz- 
ing stock,' and ' laid waste,' her ' nobles in the dust,' her 
people ' scattered ;' so that with truth it may be said of her 
' There is no healing of thy bruise, thy wound is grievous ; all 
that hear the bruit of thee shall clap their hands over thee, 
for uj^on whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually ?' " 

As soon as the English were fairly established, a court- 
martial began to sit permanently for the trial of the rebels. 
The great body of the mutineers had escaped, so that there 
could be no " wholesale punishment," but fortunately a num- 
ber of the leaders and prominent men were captured, tried, 
and executed. A gallows was erected by the Kotwalee, 
where deeds were done in May and June that fiends might 
blush to own, where Englishwomen 

" Perished 
In unutterable shame." 

The scene of their suflerings witnessed their wrongs revenged. 
As soon as order was restored a proclamation was published 
inviting all peaceably disposed inhabitants to return to their 
homes. This, however, was complied with but slowly. All 
suspected persons, and particularly Moosulmans, were either 
excluded, or had to produce a written pass before they could 
enter. The efiect of these measures, and of the trials in the 
Dewan Khas,'is thus described by Mr. Butler: "This rigid 
exclusion of the suspected Moosulman population ; this calm, 
quiet and continued investigation by the authorities; this 



28o India. 

searching out and bringing to justice the perpetrators of the 
outrages of May and June; this discrimination; this justice 
even to the most suspected wi'etches, to whom every oppor- 
tunity is given of proving their innocence (one trial alone 
lasted ten days'") ; the prompt execution of those who are 
proved guilty ; this manifest anxiety to separate friends from 
enemies, and to take care that only the guilty suffer ; all this 
with the disposition of government to acknowledge and reward 
fidelity, is producing an immense impression. It is all so con- 
trary to the rash and indiscriminate mode of Oriental despot- 
ism, and argues in their estimation such resources, and justice, 
and calm resolve as are invincible ; and which it is therefore 
folly and madness to resist. We have seen, I believe, the last 
rising against British authority that India will ever witness." 

* This was written before the trial of the Emperor, which occupied much 
more time. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

AGRA. 

Arrival at Agra— The Taj— Its Proportions— Mosaics— The "Tribe of the Infidels"- 
"The Ornament of the Palace"— Cost of the Taj— The Fort— The Pearl Mosque 
— The Dewan Am — Dewan Khas— A Seat for a Sovereign — A Court of the Zenana 
— The Palace of Mirrors — The Terrace — ^Sleeping Eooins — Town of Alexandei- — 
— The Printing Establishment — Akbur's Tomb — xikbur's Character — His Legis- 
lative and Administrative Acts — Ilis Keligibn — An Unexpected Meeting — Dine with 
my American Friends — "Young Bengal" — Illumination of the Taj — Eevisit the 
Palace — An Indian Oubliette— The Old Hindoo Palace — Hindoo Art — A Great Well 
— A Pleasant Summer Eesidence — Presentation of Colours — Commander-in-Chiefs 
Camp — Manly Sports — The Cathedral — Kam-bagh — Tomb of Aktmud-ood-Dowlah— 
"The Light of the Harem" — Her Ambition and its Success. 

I LEFT Delhi, by garrhee-dak, on the evening of December 
28th, and arrived in Agra tlie next day about noon. On the 
outskirts of the city there were ruins of many gardens, tombs, 
and other buildings, but neither in number or beauty did they 
compare to those which cover the country outside the walls 
of Delhi. 

The city of Agra is situated on the south side of the Jumna, 
a hundred and fifty miles below Delhi. Its buildings and 
pubHc edifices are quite equal to those of Delhi, as it was the 
capital of the great Emperor Akbur, and was a favourite resi- 
dence of several other sovereigns. 

The cantonments w^ere situated about two miles from the 
town. I put up at one of the hotels, which compared very 
unfavourably with that at Umbala. 
^ On the day after my arrival I drove to the Taj,''^ the mag- 

* This word is a corruption of the last syllable of Moomtaz, the name of 
the Queen whose tomb it is. The "j" should be pronounced soft, as in 
French, or as if the word were written "tarshj" — remembering to give the 
"a" a broad sound, as in the word " father." 



282 India. 

iiificent tomb erected by Shah Jehan, the most splendid of 
the Mogul Emperors, over the remains. of his favom'ite wife 
Moomtaz-ee-Mahul. 

The Taj is built apart from all other buildings, on the banks 
of the Jumna, two miles east of the city. It is in a beautiful 
garden, surrounded on three sides by a lofty wall of redstone. 
The garden is entered by a magnificent gateway, which 
is approached through several large paved courts, used as 
surais. 

The northern side of the garden is occupied by a chubootra, 
or platform of redstone, over nine hundred and fifty feet in 
length. It is open toward the river, and the side of it which 
is washed by the waters of the Jumna is protected by a water 
wall of squared redstone. 

At each corner of this vast chubootra is a tower, with a 
white marble kiosk. Two mosques occupy the east and west 
sides. Like the towers, they are of red sandstone, inlaid 
with white marble. Their domes are of the latter material. 
The western mosque only was used for prayer, which must 
always be made in the direction of Mecca. That to the east 
was built as a jowab, or ansioer to the other, in order to pre- 
serve the symmetry of the group. 

Upon this redstone chubootra is reared another of white 
marble, which supports the Taj. The marble chubootra is 
over three hundred feet square, and has at each angle a round 
minar, one hundred and fifty feet high, with two projecting 
galleries, and a light kiosk, or dome, supported by columns. In 
the centre of the chubootra, between the minars, is the Taj 
itself Its form is octagonal, but the sides which face the foui- 
cardinal points, and contain the entrances, are by far the 
largest. Each is about one hundred and thirty feet long, but 
if produced, so that the building should be a square, would 
be nearly a hundred and seventy feet in length. The roof is 
seventy feet from the surface of the chubootra ; above rises ; 
for fifty feet the circular neck of the dome. The height of 
the dome from where it begins to swell is seventy feet. It is 
surmounted by a gilt copper ornament, the top of which is 
two hundred and twenty feet from the marble chubootra. 



Agra. 283 

and nearly two hundred and sixty feet from the ground 
level.^' ■ 

The proportions of the Taj are then as follows : The chu- 
bootra, on which it is situated, is one-third as long as the one 
of redstone w^hich supports it, and forms the north end of the 
garden. The four minars are twice as high as the walls of 
the Taj, and the highest point of the ornament on the dome 
is three times as high. 

The entrances to the building are through doorways, in the 
back of large arched recesses, which also contain the windows, 
and which occupy nearly one-third of each principal side. These 
niches are as high as the roof, and the wall around them is 
continued up, as a screen, above the general level of the 
eaves. 

The shape of the dome, which is high in proportion to its 
diameter, and the great length of the circular neck on which 
it rests, are evidences of the late period at wdiich the building- 
was erected. They have been objected to by some as defects, 
but are really like the great size of the entrance-niches, only 
the carrying out of the idea and genius of Moosulman archi- 
tecture, which is to give prominence to the principal features 
at the expense of the general'mass of the building. 

The Taj, its dome, the minars, and the chubootra, are all of 
the purest white marble, highly polished. Every part of the 
whole external surface is inlaid with the most beautiful designs 
in various coloured stones, and yet with such surpassing skill 
has this been done that the general efiect of the pure wdiite 
surface is not interfered with, and it is only on close examina- 
tion that the elaborate ornamentation is detected. 

The interior of the building is a circular hall, wath a dome- 
shaped roof The walls are all of polished marble, ornamented 
with designs in sculpture and mosaic. The pavement is alter- 
nate blocks of wdnte marble and jasper. An octagonal screen 

* I think it right to state that these numbers are not the result of actual 
measurement by me. I computed them by comparing various authorities, so 
that I cannot vouch for their entire accuracy. The proportions I believe to 
nearly correct. 



284 India. 

of the most delicate marble filagree work smTounds the CQiio 
taph of the Queen, which is immediately under the centre of 
the dome. The tomb of the Emperor, her husband, is by her 
side. These are both covered with elaborate mosaics, delicate 
as the work of Florentine jewellers. One single floTver con- 
tains a hundred precious stones, each cut to the exact shape 
required. The Queen's tomb has upon it certain passages from 
the Koran, inlaid in black stone. One of these extracts, facing 
the entrance, terminates with the words, " And defend us from 
the tribe of the Infidels" — the same tribe which now governs 
the country of Shah Jehan, and keeps his tomb in repair. On 
the Emperor's tomb, which was erected by his pious son 
Aurungzeeb, there are no passages of the Koran. They were 
omitted for fear the foot of man might perchance some day 
tread upon the " holy words" — a very possible contingency, as 
things turned out. 

I have now described, as well as I can, this flower and ideal 
of Saracenic art. I must leave it to other and more eloquent 
writers to dwell upon its perfect harmony, its purity, its almost 
heavenly beauty. It has been often said that one sight of the 
Taj was worth a journey from England. I will not dispute it, 
and I feel sure that one might make the pilgrimage, visiting 
on the way all the great triumphs of European art, and not 
find among them all anything that would compare with the 
Taj at Agra, in chaste beauty, perfect simplicity, and exquisite 
grace. 

The Taj was built in the latter part of the seventeenth cen- 
tury by Shah Jehan, the same Emperor who founded the pre- 
sent city of Delhi, and built the Palace there. He had intended 
to build a precisely similar structure on the opposite bank, as 
a mausoleum for himself, connecting the two edifices by a 
bridge over the river. This ambitious design was begun, but 
never carried out, and his remains now repose in a sarcophagus 
beside that of his Queen. 

Moomtaz-ee-Mahul, "the ornament of the Palace," for 
whom Shah Jehan erected this magnificent mausoleum, was 
the niece of the famous Noor Jehan, the wife of Jehangeer, 
who is the heroine of Moore's poem, "The Light of the Harem." 



Agra. 285 

He calls her " [tToor Mahnl," the " Light of the Palace," a 
title which she afterwards altered to "Noor Jehan," or 
" Light of the World." 

The gardens of the Taj are filled with beautiful trees, form- 
ing avenues, which shade raised walks of marble slabs. In the 
central avenue is a row of fountains, extending from the great 
gateway to the foot of the chubootra. The water of these 
fountains is conducted in open canals down the centre of the 
other avenues, and serves to irrigate the plants and trees. 
The garden and all the buildings are kept in perfect order by 
the Company. 

The accounts of all the expenses of building the Taj are 
still preserved. From them we learn that the whole cost was 
three crors, seventeen lakhs and a half, of rupees, or three 
million, one hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds ster- 
ling — a sum which, allowing for the diminished value of 
money, and the difierence in the price of labour, would be 
equal to over twelve millions of pounds sterling, at the pre- 
sent day in England. 

The next day I drove to the town. The interior contains 
little that is worth seeing, except the fort. The general ap- 
pearance of the buildings is far inferior to those of Delhi, and 
the only large mosque, the Jumma Musjeed, is sadly in want 
of care and rej^airs. The town and fort were both built by 
the great Emperor Akbur, who reigned in the latter half of 
the sixteenth century. Agra is still always called by Moosul- 
mans Akburabad, or the city of Akbur. 

The fort is within the walls, along the river's bank. It is 
defended by high fortifications of redstone, with strong but- 
tresses, and lofty gateways. The top of the wall is orna- 
mented mth arched battlements, like those upou the palace- 
walls of Delhi. 

Driving through one of the gates, and up a steep inclined 
plane, I found myself in a large open court-yard, having on my 
right the palace, and in front the Motee Musjeed, or " Pearl 
Mosque," which I first visited. It consists of a court, about 
one hundred feet square, paved with polished marble, sur- 
rounded by marble walls, and having at its further end a 



286 India. 

marble colonnade, all of the purest white, exquisitely polished, 
and without a speck or flaw in any part. It well deserves its 
name. 

From this Musjeed I was conducted to the palace, which 
was built by Shah Jehan, who also constructed the Taj, and 
the city and palace of Delhi. 

The first room which we entered was a large hall, having 
its stone roof suj)ported by rows of pillars. This was the 
Dewan Am, or public reception hall of the Emperor, and was 
formerly open to the court. IsTow, however, it is walled in 
and when I visited it, was used as an armoury. The walls were 
covered with panoplies, and rows of various arms ; and from 
the pillars hung httle blue flags, on which were inscribed in 
English, Persian, and Hindee, the names of the various victo- 
ries of the English in India. At one end of this hall, sur- 
rounded by drapery, are two elaborately carved doors of 
sandal-wood, bearing evident marks of age and hard usage in 
their injured and worm-eaten appearance. These gates be- 
longed to a celebrated idol-temple called Somnath, in Gooze- 
rat, on the west coast of India. In the year of the Hijra 415, 
or A.D. 1024, the temple was taken and sacked by Sooltan 
Mahood, an Afghan prince, who carried the gates back with 
him to his home, the city of Ghuznee, in Afghanistan. There 
they remained until the late Afghan war, when Lord Ellen- 
borough had them removed, with a view of taking them to 
Calcutta, but the expense of transport amounted to so large a 
sum by the time they arrived at Agra, that he made up his 
mind to deposit them in this arsenal. 

Opposite the door of the armoury is the Emperor's throne, a 
recess in the wall, like the box of a theatre. It is decorated 
with marble, inlaid with mosaics, and now contains a sofa and 
two chairs of marble open-work, which were presented to 
Lord Ellenborough by a Caboolee chief. 
,j^ The royal throne was approached by a door from behind. 

Passing through this, we came upon a stone terrace, enclosing 
a court-yard about fifty yards square. Three sides of this ter- 
race were protected by a roof, and surrounded by buildings. 
The fourth was open, and overlooked the river. This part of 



Agra. 287 

the terrace was very broad, and paved with white marble. 
At one end was a marble colonnade, with a roof of the same 
material. Here the Emperor used to sit during his state 
receptions, and this court was the Dewan Khas of the Agra 
Palace. 

The whole effect of the court was fine ; and the view across 
the water to the Taj, which is situated around the bend of the 
river, is very striking. The Jumna is here so wide, that it is 
very shallow, not being navigable for vessels of any size. Two 
elephants were standing nearly in the middle of the stream, 
yet their legs were only just covered by its waters. They 
were washing themselves, an operation which they accom- 
plished by drawing up the water into their trunks, and then 
squirting it out upon their bodies. 

On this terrace are two large and thick slabs, one of black 
marble, the other of white. They were both used as thrones, 
the latter by the great Akbur Shah. Each of them has a 
corner broken off. When and how this damage occurred, is 
not known. The black marble slab is regarded with great 
reverence by the Moosulmans, who always salam to it, and 
say that no one but an emperor or king can sit on it. I 
ansAvered the question practically by takmg a seat upon it, 
and requested the guide, a Moosulman, to do the same. But 
he said the stone would not bear him, and thlit on the occa- 
sion of one of the Maharatta conquerors impiously sitting 
upon the stone, it bled in two places, pointing to some red 
spots. He accounted for my impunity by the supposition that 
all Europeans are sovereigns,* (sircar-log,) which, with a little 
change in locality, is, I believe, a j^art of every true Ameri- 
can's creed. 

Leaving the Dewan Khas, I went into one of the courts of 
the Zenana. Part of it was laid out as a garden, at one end 
of which was a broad marble terrace, sheltered by a canopy 
of the same material, supported on colonnades. Between the 
garden and this " loggia" was a marble tank, perhaps forty 
feet long by twenty broad. In its centre was a fountain 
which filled it with water, and all around the edges were 



288 India. 

marble stalls, where, the guide said, the ladies of the Zenana 
used to sit up to their necks in water. 

We next went to the Sheesh Mahul, or Hall of Mirrors, the 
walls of which are completely covered by little mirrors, em- 
bedded in a kind of stucco, which gleams like frosted silver. 
On one side is a recess, where a stream of water entered, and 
running down an inclined plane, tumbled into a marble basin 
in the centre of the room. The whole was so arranged, that 
the hall was entirely lighted by powerful lamps, placed behind 
the waterfall, and beneath the marble tank. When I saw the 
place, the water had long ceased to flow, and the ceiling and 
walls were blackened by the smoke of the guide's torches. 

From the Sheesh Mahul we ascended to the story above the 
Dewan Khas. Here- there was a magnificent terrace running 
along the battlements of the fort. Seventy feet below was the 
moat, and beyond it the Jumna. Along the edge of the para- 
pet are several pavilions of white marble, which partially over- 
hang the water. Their floors are of marble, and have a foun- 
tain in the centre, and from within the Jumna and Taj are 
seen through panels of that wonderful marble open-work which 
can only be compared to the lace of Europe or the most deli- 
cate ivory carvings of the patient Chinese. The walls of these 
pavilions, as well as those of -^ome other parts of the Palace, 
are inlaid with* mosaic designs, to which the highest praise 
that can be given is, that if possible they surpass those of the 
Taj. The exquisite taste of the whole and of every detail, and 
the perfection of the mosaic ornaments and the most fragile 
open-work, after the lapse of two hnndred years, surpassed 
anything that I had expected. 

We now went through the numerous sleeping apartments 
of the zenana. They were small and mean, all the taste and 
splendour being reserved for the courts and terraces where the 
day was passed. After visiting two small mosques where the 
ladies of the harem attended reUgious services,which were held 
by a little boy (for no 'man would of course be allowed within 
the zenana), my guide informed me that I had seen all that 
there was of interest. So I dismissed him with a bucksees, 
reentered my buggy, and returned to the hotel. 



Agra. 289 

The next day I drove out to Sekundra, a j^lace about six 
miles from Agra, called after Alexander the Great, whose 
name, pronounced by the natives Sekundur, is still held in 
great respect in India. There are many towns of the same 
name, just as there are many " Washingtons" and " Jackson- 
villes" in America, but the invasion of the Macedonian con- 
queror did not extend beyond the river Hydaspes, now called 
the Jhelum. 

The drive to Sekundra is very j^leasant, the road being bor- 
dered with fine trees, an unusual thing in India. On the road 
tbere are two coss-minars, or pillars, to mark the distance. 
They are found on all the roads leading from Delhi and Agra. 
Their form is a cone rising from a cylinder, about fifteen feet 
high ; the material of which they are constructed, is rubble 
work covered with stucco. They were erected by the Mogul 
Emperors, and do not seem ever to have borne inscriptions. 
The coss, the usual measure of distance in India, varies in 
length in diflerent parts of the country ; but in Hindoostan it 
is one mile and a half English. 

On the road to Sekundra I passed the ruins of many large 
buildings, and the place itself contains many such remains of 
antiquity. It is now inhabited principally by people employed 
in a large missionary publishing establishment, the presses and 
workshops of which are established in one ' of the largest 
tombs. 

The principal object of interest is the tomb of the Emperor 
Akbur, erected by his son Jehangeer. It is situated in a large 
quadrangle surrounded by redstone walls, the inner side of 
which, as is usual in these buildings, is formed into a roofed 
verandah and used as a sural or resting place for travellers. 
In the middle of each side is a lofty and massive gateway, 
from each of which a broad stone causeway leads to the chu- 
bootra in the centre of the quadrangle. The space between 
the causeways is laid out as a garden, and filled with mango, 
lemon, orange, and other trees. The tomb rises in the centre 
of the quadrangle. It consists of five terraces, rising pyra- 
midally one above the other. The material of which it is 
constructed is redstone, like the chubootra, on which it rests. 

13 



290 India. 

The lowest and largest terrace of the building is three hun- 
dred feet square. The highest story, which alone is built of 
white marble, is not more than two thirds of that size. The 
pavement of the highest story, which is at the same time, the 
roof of the building, is formed of white marble blocks. In its 
centre is the cenotajDh, a plain marble tomb on which are 
carved the " ninety-nine names" of God, The Emperor's 
body lies directly under this cenotaph, on the ground floor of 
the building, as is the case in all the Mausoleums. 

The monotony and heavy appearance of the redstone, which 
forms the material of the tomb and gateways, was once re- 
lieved by bold and free decorations in the gaudiest style of 
" j)olychrome," but of this, nearly all traces have been re- 
moved by time and the weather. 

The Emperor Akbur, whose last resting-place this is, was 
the best and greatest of the descendants of Tamerlane. He 
carried his arms to every part of India, and for the first time 
thoroughly subjected the whole peninsula to the supreme 
power at Delhi. He not only gained the power, but by his 
wise administrative measures, so strengthened and bound 
together the whole empire, as to lay the foundation of the 
greater splendour of his successors. Shah Jehan and Aurung- 
zeeb. 

He introduced reforms into the whole civil and military 
service, and subjected all his territories to a uniform system 
of government. But the greatest and most important of his 
enactments concerned the revenue, which was then, as now, 
principally derived from the tax or rent of land. For .this 
pur]30se he caused exact surveys to be made, and divided all 
the cultivated soil into three classes according to its yield. 
The demand of government was one third of the produce.* 
Although this may seem to our ideas excessive, yet it was 
considered at that time a great reduction from the previous 
assessments ; and this enactment has always been looked on 
as the most important and beneficial act of his reign. 

* The land-tas of the East India Company, now amo-unts to from one 
sixth to one eighth of tlie produce. 



Agra. 291 

Besides being a general and legislator, Akbur Avas a man of 
letters, a theologian, and a philosopher. He caused Persian 
translations of several of the old Sanscrit writings to be made 
for his perusal, and was the first and only Moosulman Prince 
who took an interest in Hindoo literature. 

As a theologian, he caused the professors and teachers of 
Hindoo and Mahommedan religions to argue before him in de- 
fence of their respective faiths ; and he even brought some 
Christian priests from the South of India to be present and 
join in their disputations. An account of one of these debates 
is preserved in the Akburnameh, a Persian work of the time. 
The Christians seem to have had the advantage, both in tem- 
per and argument, and the dispute is ended by Akbur's reprov- 
ing the Moolahs for their violence, and declaring that in his 
belief, God could only be rightly worshipped by following 
reason, and not relying on any system of revelation. 

In accordance with these views, the Emperor invented a 
religion of his own, which was a system of pure Deism. He 
abolished all ceremonies as unessential observances ; but al- 
lowed his disciples to pray if they found it necessary for their 
weakness. If any external symbols of worship were to be 
chosen, he recommended the sun, or fire. Although his reason 
led him to frame a system so averse to external observances, 
yet he seems naturally to have had deep religious feelings 
which found vent in superstitious j^ractices, and even magic 
arts. It was this feature in his character which led him to kiss 
and place upon his head, the images of our Lord, and the 
Blessed Virgin, presented for his adoration by the Christian 
priests. 

On the whole, Akbur was by far the greatest, wisest, and 
best of the Mogul Emperors, although he was neither the 
most powerful, or the most splendid. Of all the rulers of In- 
dia, he is the only one on whose character and acts, the 
Christian student of history can look back with admiration 
and respect. 

My original plan had been to go from Agra to Bombay by 
the mail-cart, which does the eight hundred miles in about five 
days — sometimes a little less. This mode of travelling is, I 



292 India. 

have said before, very exhausting, and my sickness at Umhala, 
from the eflects of which I was still suffering, made it impos- 
sible for me to undergo the exposure and fatigue. 

I then thought of going by dhoolee. But finding that there 
were no chokees, or places where relays of bearers could be 
obtained, that the dak-bungalows were few and far apart, and 
that I should be quite alone for over a month, I gave it up, 
and reluctantly determined to return to Calcutta, and proceed 
thence homeward by the Peninsular and Oriental Company's 
steamers. 

With this intention I went to the dak agent and engaged a 
dak down country. After transacting this business I wished 
to go to the other hotel, about a mile off. A young English 
Engineer, Mr. Gibson, who happened to be in the ofiice at the 
time, offered to take me in his buggy. On the way he in- 
formed me that he also, was bound homewards, and intended 
to go by way of Bombay, if he could get any one to join him. 
This entirely changed the aspect of affairs, and as soon as I 
arrived at the hotel, I sent ofi" a messenger to countermand 
my dak. 

At the hotel, the landlord happened to mention that two 
American gentlemen were staying in his house. I was 
delighted at the prospect of seeing some of my countrymen 
and at once sent in my name. I found them to be two young 
men travellmg like myself for pleasure and information. One 
was from Boston, and knew several of my friends there ; the 
other was a Virginian. To my surprise and delight I found 
that they also wished to go to Bombay, and had even bought 
palkees and engaged bearers for the purpose. They were to 
start in two days for Delhi, but would return in a week and 
leave at once for Bombay. 

Their plans so nearly coincided with those of Gibson and 
myself, that we soon came to a compromise and agreed to 
unite our forces. 

Gibson had been in favour of " marching " with camels, 
horses and tents, which would have been the pleasantest and 
cheapest plan — but as time was a matter of importance to the 
rest of us, he gave up his preference. The other two had 



Agra. 293 

proposed to go by wiiy of Gwalior, which is the regular 
mail-road ; but as I had been reading a description of the 
country, and knew that by making a detour of two hundred 
miles we could see the most interesting sights of Western 
India, the others yielded in this respect, and we determined to 
go by way of JaijDoor. 

The chance which brought us together, and enabled me to 
go across the country to Bombay, was very remarkable. In 
the first place, travellers of any kind are very rare in India, 
but American travellers are still rarer ; and that three of these 
O'arm aves should meet by chance, was still more remark- 
able. Then it was extraordinary that our plans should coin- 
cide as they did, and that we should all be going by a route 
which, being through a wild country, where there is almost 
no road, is scarcely ever travelled over. Lastly, our meeting 
with Gibson was most fortunate, as his acquaintance with the 
country and language enabled us to see much more than Ave 
otherwise could, and saved us a great deal of trouble. 

I dined the next day with my two countrymen. At their 
hotel I saAv a Calcutta Baboo, who was on his way to Delhi. 
He belonged to " Young Bengal " — a class of natives in Cal- 
cutta, who Iiave cast aside more or less the prejudices of their 
nation and religion, and adopted the habits, manners, and 
dress of Englishmen to some extent. This specimen was 
enormously fat and sleek, and very dark skinned. He was 
almost a Christian, being in the habit of drinking brandy pro- 
fusely, wearing his shoes in the house, and eating without 
scruple in the company of Europeans. He still, however, re- 
tained a heathen prejudice against beef. 

After dinner we went in carriages to the Tiij, which we 
caused to be illuminated by coloured lights. The effect was 
beautiful beyond description. The view by moonlight is said 
to be better, but I can hardly think so. One of the party had 
brought with him a flute, and played some slow and plaintive 
airs. The rich tones rose to the dome and floated around 
its sides, each successive note mingling with those that had 
gone before, till they were all blended in one rich harmony, 
which hung throbbing in the air, like the music of the spheres, 
for long minutes after the flute had ceased to play. 



294 India. 

The next day my two American friends went to Delhi 1 
occupied the time during their absence by seeing the remain- 
ing sights of Agra, and making preparations for the journey 
to Bombay. 

During this time I went again over the palace, in Gibson's 
company. I again saw and admired all that I had seen when 
last there, but on this occasion we succeeded in seeing much 
more, through the iufluence of Gibson, w^ho understood man- 
aging the natives. The guide took us through several courts, 
with flower-gardens, tanks and white marble pavilions; through 
endless galleries ; and one suite of rooms after another. At 
the end of a long, low passage, far removed from all the other 
apartments, we found a small arched vault, in which the faith- 
less wives of the Padshah* were hung. The beam with the 
hole for the fatal rope yet remained in its place. After the 
culprit's death, her body was thrown down a dark and deep 
oubliette, opening immediately under the gallows, and leading 
to the river. 

This was how the Padshah got rid of his women. The 
capital punishments reserved for men were to be trodden, or 
gored to death by elephants ; or else cut to pieces by sharp 
knives attached to the feet of these animals. 

We also visited the remains of a very ancient Hindoo pal- 
ace, which are contained within the fort. They are almost 
the only specimens of an ancient Hindoo dwelling which I 
saw in India. These remains consisted of two small grass- 
grown courts, surrounded by many-storied buildings of dark 
brown stone. The court-yards were dark, gloomy and mys- 
terious. .Within the buildings all was the same dingy stone, 
lookino; as if it would fall and crush him who ventured inside. 
Even the floors and low ceilings were of great blocks of stone, 
supported by columns carved into serpents, dragons, devils, 
and all foul and hideous forms. The arch was no where to be 
seen. 

There is nothing grand about Hindoo art. All of their 
buildings which remain (if we except the Kootub at Delhi. 

* Padshah, i. e., Emperor. 



Agra. 295 

the authorship of which is not known) are small, heavy and 
gloomy. Their temples have exactly the same form all over 
India. The tall and heavy pyramid, the low entrance, and 
the small dark chamber in the centre are the same in all. 
Bishop Heber says that there is something impressive and 
awful in these temples. I think this is the case ; the cruelty 
and immorality of the religion, reacts upon the architecture 
of its temples, and you feel within them that you are in a 
shrine dedicated to the worship of devils. 

In the great court-yard of the fort is a noble well, about 
fifty feet deep, and thirty in diameter. A flight of broad 
stone steps, the entrance of which is about a hundred feet from 
the" mouth of the well, leads down through the ground to the 
surface of the water. The ground over the stairway is sup- 
j)orted by an arched roof of stone. 

The fort of Agra proved of the greatest service during the 
mutiny. As long as the troubles lasted all the Christian resi- 
dents of the station, city, and from the country around, re- 
mained in safety within its walls. 

Recent disclosures have made it probable that the mutiny 
was to have come off on New Year's day. If it had taken 
place at that time, and I had escaped with my life, I might 
have been compelled to pass last summer within the Fort of 
Agra, which would have been a much warmer and less agree- 
able residence than the mountains of Switzerland, which I was 
enabled to reach by the miscarriage of the original plan for 
insurrection. 

After leaving the fort we drove to the parade-ground, and 
witnessed the j^i'esentation of colours to the "Third Euro- 
peans " — a new regiment which had just been embodied, in 
accordance with a resolution of the Indian Government, al- 
lowing three regiments of English soldiers, instead of two, to 
each Presidency. The colours were presented by Mrs. Anson, 
wife of the commander-in-chief, who was then at Agra on his 
tour of inspection. The regiment was commanded by Colonel 
Riddle, whose acquaintance I had made at Delhi. His speech 
and that of Mrs. Anson were both very good, and the affair 
was quite briUiant, as all the ladies and gentlemen of the 



296 India. 

station had come in carriages or on horseback to witness the 
ceremony. 

Afterwards we walked over to the commander-in-chief's 
camp, which, with its various tents, elephants, camels, and 
other a«cessories, occupied a space three times as large as 
Washington parade-ground in l^ew York. 

The next day was devoted to the " old sports " of leaping, 
running, throwing cannon balls, running in a sack, and others. 
They were joined in by the men of the Third Europeans, and 
attracted a large number of spectators from the station. 

Wherever the English are they must have their manly ex- 
ercises. Climate is not the slightest obstacle. The soldiers 
in India play cricket bareheaded in the sun's rays, when the 
thermometer stands at 100° in the shade; their officers dare 
both the deadly sun of summer and the pestiferous miasms of 
the jungul, in hunting the tiger. Every English colony or 
settlement has its races, every station in India has its racket 
court, every Englishman in India will ride a hundred miles 
without rest for a single day's snipe-shooting, and even when 
the forces were collecting at Cawnpoor for the relief of Luck- 
now, when more sentimental soldiers would have been thinking 
of what they had passed through and of what was still before 
them, the English army engaged in the sports of the olden 
time, with as much zest as if they were on the peaceful shores 
of " merrie England." 

On the following Sunday I went to mass at the Romish ca- 
thedral, which is a large pukka building in the Doric style, 
but cruciform, and covered with a dome. The music of the 
service, which was sung by the nuns, was exceedingly good. 
After church I called on the Bishop, whose palace is in the 
same compound with the cathedral. I had received a letter 
of introduction to him, from Era Raffaello, the Romish priest 
of XJmbala. I found " his Lordship," as he is called, a very 
pleasant, gentlemanly man. He was a capuchin from Naples. 
We had quite a long conversation, during which he informed 
me that there are ^ about five hundred thousand native Chris- 
tians, of the Romish persuasion, in India ; but confessed that 
now-a-days but few converts were made ; all the efforts of the 



Agra. 297 

priests being required to retain Christian families in the faith 
Agra once contained twenty-live thousand Christian families, 
according to M. de Thevenot, who visited the city in 1666. 
This number may be a little exaggerated, but there must have 
been a very large number of Christians. They were mostly 
French, or Dutch, or their half-caste descendants, who were 
employed in the artillery, arsenals, and gun-foundries of the 
Emperor. These duties were, in all parts of India, entrusted 
exclusively, by the native rulers, to Europeans, avIio were all 
Christians, and formed in the aggregate quite a large Christian 
population. When M. de Thevenot visited Agra it had half 
a million of inhabitants — while now it has not over seventy- 
five thousand. 

I was anxious to see whether the opinion of the native char- 
acter formed by the Bishop, as an Italian, a Romanist, and 
one who had been for years in daily intercourse with natives, 
would differ at all from the impressions which I had myself 
derived from observation, history, the conversation of English- 
men and such intercourse as I had been able to hold with the 
natives themselves. I found that he entertained exactly the 
same opinions which I had formed, and have expressed, and 
he said that in all parts of India the missionary priests, who 
live almost as natives, have come to the same judgment. 

The following day I crossed over the river to the " Ram 
Bagh" or " Garden of Ram" — a beautiful and extensive gar- 
den on the bank of the Jumna. It was founded in the time of 
the Mogul Emperors, but is now kept in order by the Com- 
pany. The stone pavilions and marble villas which it con- 
tains, are always occupied in the summer season by picnic and 
other parties, who often remain several days. 

On the way back I stopped at the mausoleum of Kwaja 
Aeeas, commonly called "the tomb of Aktmud ood Dowlah." 
It stands within a quadrangular enclosure, upon a marble chu- 
bootra. The mausoleum is of white marble, about fifty feet 
square, and twelve feet high. At each corner is a round mar- 
ble tower, about forty feet in height, surmounted by a marble 
kiosk. In the middle of the roof, is a square, dome-shaped 
canopy of marble, resting on supports of marble openwork. 

1.3* 



298 India. 

The whole tomb was once covered with decorations in mosaic 
and painting, hut both are now in bad repair. 

In the interior is a circular apartment, with marble walls, 
and an arched marble roof, both richly decorated with grace- 
ful designs in various colours and gilding. In the centre of 
this room lie the remains of Kwaja Aeeas, one of the most 
remarkable characters of Jehangeer's reign. 

He came originally from Western Tartary, being attracted 
to India by the hopes of procuring employment in the court 
of the Emperor Akbur. So poor was he that he started on 
this long journey, with only one bullock, which carried his 
wife and their little baggage. On the way his wife was deliv- 
ered of a daughter. Once arrived at Akbur's court, he 
rapidly rose to a high position, both by his intrinsic merits, 
and the favour of some relations who had long been in the 
Emperor's service. His daughter, IS'oor Mahul, had now 
grown up to be a prodigy of beauty. Being freely admitted 
to the royal zenana she was accidently seen by the Prince 
Mirza Suleem, afterward the Emperor Jehangeer, who at once 
conceived for her that violent passion, which forms the subject 
of Moore's poem, " The Light of the Harem." 

Sheer Afgun, a Toorkman noble, had long been espoused 
to ISToor Mahul, and, notwithstanding the opposition of the 
heir-apparent, he married her. As soon, however, as Jehan* 
geer was seated on the musnud, as Akbur's successor, he 
caused his successful rival to be murdered, and took possession 
of his wife, whom he married. From this time ISToor Mahul, 
or as she now styled herself Noor Jehan, exercised an abso- 
lute sway over the Emperor, and became a paramount author- 
ity in the government. Her father, over whom this tomb was 
erected, was raised to the rank of Aktmud ood Dowlah or 
high treasurer ; and afterwards promoted to be the prime 
minister of the empire. Her relations from Tartary flocked 
to the court, and were well provided for. 

She never had any children by Shah Jehan, but her one 
daughter by her first husband, she married to a younger son 
of the Emperor. In order to secure the crown to her son-in- 
law, she induced the Emperor to put out the eyes of his eldest 



Agra. 299 

son Khosroo. His mother was then invited by Noor Jehan 
to visit her apartments. She led her out to a well in the 
court, which she asked her to look down. Her victim com- 
plied, and Noor Jehan at once threw her in. Khosroo was 
afterwards taken to the South of India hy Shah Jehan, the 
Emperor's second son, who said " he could not bear to be 
separated from his poor blind brother" and was there mur- 
dered by his orders. 

ISJ'otwithstanding the efforts of ISToor Jehan, the Emperor's 
second son, Shah Jehan, succeeded to his father's throne on 
his death. He put the Empress in confinement, and blinded 
his brother Shah Reear, her protege. His other relations 
were all strangled by his orders. With the accession of Shah 
Jehan the influence of this remarkable woman ceases. For 
ten years she had in fact governed the empire, had even led 
the imj^erial troops in battle, and had caused her name to be 
struck on the coin of the royal mint — a solitary instance of 
that honour being awarded to a woman in India. 

The new Emperor Shah Jehan, had married her niece, 
Moomtaz-ee-Mahul, over whose remains the Taj was after- 
wards erected. She seems to have inspired her husband with 
an aflection as deep and powerful as that of which Jehangeer 
felt for her aunt ; but Shah Jehan being a man of greater 
ability than his father did not leave the reins of his govern- 
ment in the hands of a woman. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

AGRA TO JAIPOOR. 

Chowdris — Combination versus Competition — Our Eetinue — Price of Labour — Commer- 
cial Integrity — Leaving Agra — The Departure of "a Warrior Lord" — A Loan to the 
Sovereign Company — TheEoyal Pilgrimage — "Seekree, the City of Victory — Tomb 
of a Wealthy Saint — A Magnificent Gateway — ^Bishop Heber's Guide — Throne-room 
—Human Chessmen— Blind-man's Buff— The Old Lake— A Triumph for Eeligion — 
Irreverence — Dining in a Palace — "Pointing a Moral " — Four Eupees' worth of Pic- 
turesque Piety — Fording a Jheel — Bhurtpoor — English Protection and its Fruits — 
The Fort — Its Sieges— An Indian Sebastopol— Eajah's Palace— Battle of Deeg— 
Quail Fighting— A Boxing Match— Deer— Bosawur— Breakfast at 3 P. M.— The Vil- 
lage — A Native Distillery — People on Eoad — Antelopes — Manpoor — Walled Villages 
— Naked Sanctity — Pilgrim to the Shrine of Juggurnath — Buranah — Pigeons — 
Dress of the Eajpoots — Hills of Jaipoor — Palace of the Eajah — Jaipoor. 

On the 1 2th of January, my American friends had returned 
from Delhi, and we were all ready to start for Bombay. The 
previous week had been occupied in making arrangements, 
and bargaining for the bearers. We at first made application 
to a Chowdri* who lived near the hotel, but not liking his 
terms we had recourse to all the others in the place. These 
fellows were ostensibly in opposition to each other ; but as 
we discovered that they were really in league, we gave our 
custom to the first man with whom we had spoken. This is 
a curious feature in the habits of all native tradesmen. As 
some one has remarked " they do not understand comj^etition, 
but are masters of combination." All trades and occupations 
are in the hands of certain castes or guilds, who unite their 
forces against the customer. By an ajDparent competition 
they will induce purchasers to buy at a price far exceeding 
the real value of the article ; and the surplus profit is then 
divided among all those who have joined in the plot. This 

* Chowdri, a native maitre de posie from whom kuhars or palkee-bearera 
are hired. 



Agra to Jaipoor. 301 

custom makes it impossible for a stranger or European to buy 
anything at a reasonable price in the bazars. It is much bet- 
ter and cheaper for him to make such purchases through a 
native, and submit to the cheating of one rather than be de- 
frauded by a combination of a dozen. 

Gibson and I went in dhoolees, which are more commo- 
dious than palkees, and which being lighter required only 
twelve bearers each. The two other Americans had j^alkees, 
and sixteen kuhars each. Our baggage was carried upon bam- 
boo poles by eight banghee-burdars. We also took a servant 
who was in the pay of the Americans, but cooked for the whole 
party. He went in a dhoolee with twelve bearers. Besides 
these there were six extra banghee-burdars to carry cooking 
utensils and j^rovisions ; and four mussalchees, or torch-bear- 
ers, for the palkees, so that our retinue amounted to eighty- 
six men exclusive of the servant. 

In the northern part of India, as I have before stated there 
are lines of chowkees along all the principal roads. At each 
chowkee a fresh relay of bearers is obtained, so that the same 
set only carry the palkee for a stage of ten miles, but in Cen- 
tral India there are no such arrragements, and we had to hire 
in Agra, a sufficient number of men to carry us all the way 
to Bombay. The road is regularly divided off, before start- 
ing, into day's marches — the estimated number, by the route 
which we took, being thirty-nine. If we remained a day at any 
place we agreed to pay a fixed sum to the men as demurrage. 

To give an idea of the cheapness of labour and living in 
India, it is only necessary to state the terms on which we 
hired the kuhars for this trip. 

The distance was nearly a thousand miles ; they were to 
feed and clothe themselves ; and would have to return all the 
way on foot, without the chance of carrying another palkee 
back, that being forbidden by the rules of their guild. For 
this service, the hire of each man was seventeen rupees, of 
which pittance an ana per rupee goes as commission to the 
chowdri, and ten per cent, is retained by the hotel-keeper at 
whose house you are staying, so that the poor kuhar only gets 
about fourteen rupees, four anas ($6 84), for his two months' 



302 India. 

labour, and even that is considered high pay, and exceeds the 
wages j^aid to other labourers. 

Gibson and I paid a Httle more than these rates. We gave 
each bearer eighteen rupees ($8 64), and paid the commission 
out of our own pockets. "We did this to make our men con- 
tented, and were in hopes that they would work better than 
the others. In this expectation we were disa23pointed, and 
for a long time could not understand the cause. At length, 
when we were almost at the end of our journey, the men con- 
fessed that they had actually been fools enough to pay all the 
commissions over again, for fear of offending the chowdri, on 
whose good wiU they were dependent for work. So that our 
liberality had only gone to enrich the chowdri who lived on 
the life-sweat of these poor wi'etches. 

We made the best bargain we conld with the chowdris but 
yet they contrived to cheat us considerably in this and other 
respects. As all the money passed through their hands, 
they made arrangements with some of the bearers to desert 
during the early part of the journey — the chowdri, of course, 
retaining the larger part of the wages which we had paid 
supposing that the stipulated number of men would continue 
with us all the way down. We did not discover this little 
game for some time, and afterwards prevented its repetition 
by counting our men every few days. Another dodge which 
we discovered, was this : whenever a man became foot-sore, 
or too sick to go on, they would say nothing to us of what 
had occurred, and not supply the man's place as they were 
bound to do by agreement. The profits of this arrangement 
inured to the kuhars in this way. We had paid half their 
wages through the chowdri before starting. The other half 
was paid by us in instalments on the road. ISTow whenever 
pay-day came round, they would get a man from the next 
village to personate the missing bearer, and would then 
divide among themselves the wages of the poor man whom 
they had left sick or dying upon the road. This cheat was 
also stopped by the j^lan of frequently mustering the bearers. 

We left Agra on the 15th of January, 1857. The day was 
cold and drizzly, but by two o'clock it cleared off*, and we 



Agra to Jaipoor. 303 

had magnificent weather during nearly all the rest of our trip 
—a matter of great importance in travelling by dhoolee, 
which affords but a slight protection against rain. 

The scene presented as our long procession set out on the 
road, was very lively ; and the shouts of the bearers added 
much to the effect. At starting, and at every village which 
we passed, they would sing out in chorus : *' Sahib Bahadur, 
kee jaee !" " Kalee, kee jaee !"* words which mean nearly, 
" Help us, oh Kalee ! A warrior lord is pleased to travel !" 
The people of the villages all replied by calling down blessings 
on our heads. Crowds of beggars ran alongside our dhoolees 
while we were in the villages, supplicating alms in the name 
of all sorts of gods, and calling us Shah Bahadur, warrior king, 
and Biindugee, or releaser of slaves. 

We soon determined to walk and did so for eight miles, as 
far as Futtehpoor Seekree. 

On the way we were passed by several very fierce looking 
suwars (native cavalry), wearing a dirty native uniform, and 
armed with spears and shields. One of these fellows stopped 
his horse, made a salam, and asked us, " Sahibo^i, upne tush- 
reef kidhur lejate ?" " Whither are my lords carrying their 
honour's effulgence?" On learning that we were going to 
Bhurtpoor, he informed us that he belonged to an escort of 
cavalry, which had come from that place to Agra, with eight 
lakhs of rupees ($400,000) as a loan from his master, the 
Rajah of Bhurtpoor, to the "Sircar Koompanee," or Sovereign 
Company, as the Honorable Company is called in that part of 
India. 

The Indian government was then in considerable financial 
trouble, as Lord Dalhousie's great stroke of calling in the five 
per cent, loan, and re-issuing it at four and a half per cent., had 
proved a failure, as might have been expected in a country 
where twelve and fourteen per cent, is the usual interest paid 
for large sums. The diflEiculties of the government were, on 
this account, so great, that when I left Agra, it was currently 

* This is the same in form as the old war-cry of the Sepoys : " Gunga jee, 
kee jaee I" " Oh, Lady Ganges, give thy aid I" 



304 India. 

believed that Lord Canning had resigned the post of Governor- 
General. 

About two o'clock we arrived at Futtehpoor Seekree, which 
is twenty-four miles from Agra. It consists of a mass of forti- 
fications, j^alaces, gateways, and other sj^lendid buildings, 
situated on the summit and sides of a range of sandstone hills, 
three miles long, which rises abruptly a hundred and fifty feet 
above the alluvial plain. 

The story of the foundation of this city is as follows. The 
Emperor Akbur lost all his children in their infancy. Filled 
with despair at this misfortune, and dreading the extinction 
of his line, he undertook a pilgrimage to the shrine of a cele- 
brated Moosulman saint in Ajmeer. The distance was three 
hundred and fifty miles. The court and all the royal family 
marched on foot with the Emperor. Kannats, or cloth walls, 
were raised on each side of the road ; and a brick tower was 
erected at the end of each day's journey, which was only four 
miles. At Ajmeer the saint appeared to Akbur, and bade him 
seek the prayers of a holy hermit, Suleem Cheestee, who lived 
at Seekree. The Emperor did so, and to his great joy, a 
child was soon afterwards born to him, who showed every 
sign of a strong and long-lived constitution. This son was 
named Suleem in honour of the holy man, and received the 
additional title of Jehangeer, " Conqueror of the World," by 
which he became known on ascending the throne. 

To testify his gratitude Akbur built this magnificent city on 
the hill where the saint resided. He said he wished to live 
always near one whose prayers were so availing with heaven. 
The new town was called FuttehjDoor Seekree, or " Seekree, 
the City of Victory." 

We passed through an arched gateway and ascended the 
hill by a paved street, on each side of which were rows of red- 
stone houses, once the residence of Akbur's lords. At length 
we found ourselves on a plateau, which had been formed into a 
great square. On one side was the massive palace of Akbur's 
prime minister — on the other, that of the Emperor himself. 
Both were of redstone, in the simple Saracenic ai'chitecture of 
the period. Time seemed to have left them uninjured — every 



Agra to Jaipoor. 305 

angle was sharp, the most delicate sculpture was perfect, and 
one could almost imagine the king and his court had gone 
forth to hunt, and would return by evening to their homes. 

We left our dhoolees in the courtyard, and having given 
orders for dinner, at once set out to explore the place. 

The first object was the tomb of San* Suleem. 

It stands within a marble-paved quadrangle, four hundred 
feet square, upon the very summit of the hill. A redstone 
wall forty feet high, with arched battlements surrounds the 
court, on the west side of w^hich is a great mosque, with 
domes of white marble. The principal entrance is on the 
south side. It is a magnificent gateway of redstone, inlaid 
with marble. Its height is one hundred and twenty feet, and 
its breadth nearly the same. From it a noble flight of red- 
stone steps descends i^yramidally to the ground. On the 
right side of the entrance are the follomng words in Arabic, 
inlaid in the stone wall : — " Jesus, on whom be peace, has said : 
this world is merely a bridge ; you are to pass over it, not 
build your dwellings upon it." 

The quadrangle is surrounded by a pillared cloister leaning 
against the wall. On the east side, opposite the musjeed, is 
a smaller entrance leading to the palace square. In the cen- 
tre is a large tank and fountain. 

The tomb is just north of the fountain. It is a small square 
building, approached by steps on each side, surmounted by a 
dome and surrounded by a closed verandah — the whole of the 
purest white marble, polished. The interior is elaborately 
decorated with carving, gilding, j^ainting, mosaic, and inlaid 
work of mother-of-pesTl. The ornamentation has been man- 
aged with so much skill, that notwithstanding its richness and 
profusion, it does not interfere with the exquisite taste of the 
architecture, or the simple purity of the white marble. 

The body of the saint lies within this building, surrounded 
by a screen of that delicate marble openwork, which looks as 
Bayard Taylor says, " as if it had been woven in a loom." 

* Mahommedan saints have tbe word "San" prefixed to their names in 
India. 



3o6 India. 

The quadrangle in which this tomb is contained, was con- 
sidered by Bishop Heber so magnificent that " no quadrangle 
either in Oxford or Cambridge, is fit to be compared with 
it, in size or majestic proportions, or for beauty of architec- 
ture." 

The whole is said to have cost thirty-seven lakhs, (11,850,- 
000),* w^hich, it is said, Avas all defrayed from the property 
left by the saint, so that, although a hermit, he seems to have 
been a considerable capitalist. 

As we were leaving the quadrangle, we were met by the 
old guide, who forthwith took us in hand to show us the other 
sights. The old fellow was quite a character. Although then 
over sixty-nine years old, and very infirm, he persisted in act- 
ing as guide, which he had done for all strangers ever since 
the place was first visited by Euroj)eans. Among his written 
recommendations was one from Bishop Heber, and numerous 
others from men whose names have become famous in India. 
He suffered dreadfully from asthma, and it would have been 
ludicrous, had it not been a serious matter, to see him drag- 
ging his fat body up the steep staircases, at every few steps 
stopping to get his wind, blowing and grunting out sentences 
of the Koran in a deep and dissatisfied voice. 

He is one of a number of the saint's descendants who live 
at Futtehpoor, and who are supported by the rent of lands 
left by the Emperor Akbur. The proceeds of the legacy are 
punctually paid by the government, who also keep the tomb 
of the saint in perfect rej^air. 

We went with the old guide through the various courts, 
rooms, and passages of the vast palace. Two pavilions were 
pointed out to us as the separate residences of the Emperor's 
chief wives — Mariam, who is supposed to have been a Por- 
tuguese Christian ; and another, who was the daughter of the 
Room-ee-Padshah, or Emperor of Rome, as the natives of 
India call the Sultan of Turkey. The apartments of the latter 
and, indeed, all the others in the palace, have stone walls 

* In naming the cost of these buildings, the amount should be multiplied 
by four to obtain the corresponding sum, at the present day, in England. 



Agra to Jaipoor. 307 

arched above, and covered with deep and elaborate carvhigs 
of foliatce and animals. 

What is called the " throne-room," is one of the strangest 
things in the j^alace. It is a circular apartment with a dome- 
shaped roof. From the centre of the floor rises a stone shaft 
sixteen feet high, which supports a small platform from which 
six stone radii diverge to the walls of the buifding. The 
tradition is, that Akbur used to hold his council sitting upon 
the capital of this column, while his ministers sat around him, 
one on each of the radii. A very original idea, and not 
altogether an improbable whim in a man so eccentric as 
Akbur. 

In the court-yard before this throne-room, there was a low 
stone canopy, on a chubootra. Here, it is said, Akbur used to 
practice magic rites — but it is j^robable that the charge arose 
only fi'om his rejection of the Mahommedan faith, and the 
general liberality of his religious views. 

One court contained a large stone building known as the 
^' Panch Mahul," or " Five Palaces," It consists of five 
stories rising pyramidally one above the other. Each story is 
surrounded by a row of columns, and the whole reminded me 
much of the style of Akbur's tomb. Its special use is not 
known. 

Another court-yard in the portion of the palace appropria- 
ted to the Zenana, was paved with stone of various colours so 
as to form a gigantic " tric-trac" board. Here the Emperor 
used to play at j^acheesee, a native game resembling " tric- 
trac," or " backgammon" — the girls of the Zenana acting as 
" pieces," and going from one square to another as the " moves" 
were made. Off this court there was a small stone apartment 
divided into various recesses and alcoves. Here it is said the 
ladies of the Zenana used to play " blind man's buff," and the 
building would be certainly admirably adapted for the j^ur- 
pose, although rather too small. But our guide described to 
us the real nature of the game, the principal features of which 
are altogether too disgusting even to be told, in this day and 
country. 

This great palace contains numerous other courts, vesti- 



3o8 India. 

bules, and corridors, as well as a mint, Dewan Am, and all 
the other accessories of an Indian Emperor's residence, inclu- 
ding long ranges of stables, and apartments for servants ; but 
we went through the rest of the building so hurriedly, that I 
feel myself incompetent to describe it. A whole day, at least, 
is necessary to see it thoroughly, and more than a day's study 
would be required for a perfect description. 

As evening was now falling we ascended a lofty point from 
which we had an extensive view of the surrounding country. 
The mist, which always rises at sunset in India, now covered 
the level plains and gave them the appearance of a lake. In- 
deed, in old times there used to be a lake at the foot of this 
hill, and the dam can still be traced. The lake furnished 
Avater for the use of the palace and town, and also for the 
terraced gardens, with which the hill sides were covered. 
After Futtehpoor was abandoned by the court, the lake dried 
up, and the surrounding country became quite barren, from 
the want of the irrigation which its waters afforded. Of late 
years this has been remedied by government. The whole 
country is every year overflowed by cutting through the banks 
of a small river near Bhurtpoor, and the water is drawn off 
below into the Jumna in time for the springing of the crops. 
The ground is now, therefore, more fertile than ever. 

Although Akbur went to the enormous expense of building 
this splendid residence and capital, he did not long occupy it. 
The saint found his devotions interfered with by the bustle of 
the busy city, and the gaieties of the court. At last, when 
the Emperor wished to surround the hill with a chain of mas- 
sive fortifications, the holy man could no longer restrain himself. 
He told his royal master that he had gone twenty times on 
pilgrimages to Mecca, and never before had had his comfort 
and quiet so much disturbed ; accordingly he said that either 
the Emjoeror or he must depart. " If it be your Majesty's 
will," replied the Emperor, " that one should go, let it be your 
slave, I pray." 

Akbur therefore built the city of Agra, upon what was then 
an unpeopled waste. The court and the townspeople removed 
thither, and Futtehpoor Seekree, with its massive palace, its 



Agra to Jaipoor. 309 

noble residences, and its deserted streets, remains to the pre- 
sent day, a monument of the splendour and wealth of its 
founder, and a testimony to the despotic power which a repu- 
tation for sanctity has in all ages conferred. 

When we returned to where we had left our palkees, the 
sun was setting, and our old guide, who was a Moosulman of 
the " straitest sect" — a class of which there are now but few 
in India — spread his praying-carpet npon the ground, and sat 
down on it, with his face to the west, for his devotions. 

He began chaunting the Arabic prayers in a loud voice, and 
apparently with entire abstraction. Soon, however, he was 
interrupted. Our Hindoo bearers, who were standing around, 
began to make jokes at him. Upon this he stopped and cursed 
them roundly, and then turned again to his prayers. Delighted 
that they had succeeded in annoying him, the Hindoos renewed 
the attack with twofold vigour. The old fellow stood it for a 
long time, but at length his patience was exhausted, and he 
scared them with such strength of imprecations and lungs 
that they walked away. 

It was dark before we got dinner, which was served in one 
of the rooms of the Prime Minister's palace, an apartment 
arranged by Government for the reception of visiters. The 
rooms were not large, but very lofty ; the walls were of red 
stone, decorated with sculptures and arched niches. The 
ceiling was a solicj dome of stone. The place and occasion 
were rather romantic. That we, from the opposite side of the 
world, members of the latest branch of that Christian race 
which are hated and despised, and at one time were nearly 
enslaved by the followers of Mahommed, should be dining in 
a palace chamber of what was once the capital of one of the 
mightiest Moosulman monarchs — and that, not by the invita- 
tion of his descendants, but by the permission and favour of a 
company of merchants, belonging to that same hated race, 
who had appropriated all that monarch's power and glory, and 
whose sway now extended over all that was once his domin- 
ions, and over countries whither he and his descendants in 
vain attempted to carry their arms and extend their power — 
here was certainly food for reflection, and a text, the com- 



310 ladia. 

ments upon which might, with good management, be made to 
fill a book. 

Before sitting doAvn to dinner, we dismiSvSed om* old guide 
with a handsome bucksees. He recompensed us by imploring 
the blessings of Heaven on our journey, praying that " we 
might arrive, whither we would go, in safety, peace, and cool- 
ness." The latter part of the prayer struck me as unseasona- 
ble, as we were all sitting -with our over-coats on, and it was 
almost freezing out of doors ; but as the old man stood with 
upturned eyes and hands raised in supplication, his fine figure 
and long grey beard, with the really earnest expression of his 
countenance, formed a noble and impressive picture. How- 
ever, I believe that the same scene, with variations in the 
words to suit occasions, is got up for any party who will give 
him four rupees for an afternoon's work, as we did. We bade 
him good-bye, and shook his hand ; he retreated backward, 
with salams, from our presence. As he walked away across 
the court, we could hear him puffing and blowing for a long 
way, and every now and then grunting out a verse of the 
Koran, or the words "Allah! Allah Akbur!" in those same 
indescribably wretched and guttural tones which we had heard 
in the morning. At length the sturdy blows of his iron-shod 
stick against the pavement became fainter and fainter, and 
died away, and that was the last we saw or heard of Bishop 
Heber's guide, the most original native I met in India. 

At midnight we started for Bhurtpoor, and had a disagree- 
able march, as the bearers lost their way and got into a j heel 
(shallow lake), where they floundered about for half an hour, 
to my great discomfort, as I was afraid the water would get 
into my dhoolee. I did not find travelling by night in the 
low plains at all pleasant, as there was always a mist, which 
made the air very chilly, and frequently caused the kuhars to 
lose their way. 

We awoke next morning at Bhurtpoor, where we occupied 
an empty bungalow belonging to the Rajah, and appropriated 
by him to the accommodation of Europeans. 

Bhurtpoor was the first place that I had visited in India 
beyond the limits of the Company's " raj," or sway. We 



Agra to Jaipoor. 311 

were now passing beyond the Mahommedan part of India, 
and coming to the Rajpootana states and other Hindoo 
territories, which have always preserved a sort _of indepen- 
dence, both of the Mogul power and the Company's Govern- 
ment. 

The territory of Bhurti^oor is inhabited by Jats — a Hindoo 
tribe from the banks of the Indus, near Mooltan. They come 
of the same stock as tlie Seekhs, and will still intermarry v^^ith 
them. In settling in this part of the country, the Jats began 
as cultivators and robbers on a small scale. Becoming enriched 
by this trade, they ventured to plunder the tributes as they 
were being conveyed to the imperial capital. At length they 
rose to making war on the neighbouring states, and before the 
death of Aurungzeeb, in the beginning of the last century, 
they declared and maintained their independence, which they 
retain to this day. The independence of these native states 
is, in general, merely nominal, as they are entirely at the 
mercy of the Honourable Company, and the advice of the 
resident ambassador becomes, in fact, a command. Such a 
government is, of course, not so good as that in the English 
territories, but is infinitely preferable to the unlimited despo- 
tism of native rulers. The independent chieftains, who are 
almost numberless, are now compelled to live in peace with 
each other, whereas formerly they were engaged in endless 
wars, rebellions, and free-booting expeditions. Taking the do- 
minions of this one rajah alone as a sj)ecimen, we find that 
"the thick belt of jungul, three miles w^ide, with which the 
chiefs of Bhurtpoor used to surround their fortress while they 
were free-booters. has been fast diminishing since the capture 
of the place by the English troops in 1826, and will very soon 
disappear altogether, and give place to rich sheets of cultiva- 
tion and happy little village communities." '" In fact, the 
change spoken of in the above sentence, which was written 
fourteen years ago, has already taken place. The people, no 
longer dreading the warlike incursions of neighbouring rajahs, 
and secured against fl.agrant oppression by the watchful super- 

* Colonel Sleeman's •' Rambles and Recollections of an Indian OflScial." 



312 India. 

vision of the English Residents,* are every year extending the 
cultivation of the soil, reclaiming waste land, and more and 
more turning their attention to agriculture and useful indus- 
try, instead of war and robbery — two pursuits which formerly 
gave constant occupation to a large number of the population. 
The first effect has always been to occasion great discontent 
among a large and powerful class, namely, the predatory chief- 
tains and their feudal followers ; but in a few years these mur- 
murs cease, and general peace, plenty, and prosperity, with a 
rise in the value of property, resulting from the security of its 
tenure, testify to the good effects of the change. 

In the afternoon we walked into the town, which, although 
very populous, is a mere collection of mud-hovels, traversed 
by narrow and dirty streets. The fort, contaming the palace, 
is situated on one side of the town, upon an elevation of 
ground. It is a very extensive and exceedingly strong for- 
tification. The moat is broad and deep, the walls thick and 
lofty. There are two lines of defence, formed of stone and 
earth respectively. 

This place sustained two sieges from the Enghsh — the first 
in 1804, under Lord Lake, the second in 1826, under Lord 
Cambermere. The attack by Lord Lake was occasioned by 
the Rajah having taken side with the Maharattas, who took 
refuge in this place. Lord Cambermere's attack was in behalf 
of the Rajah, who had become an ally of the British, and 
whose throne had been usurped by one of his relations. 

In both sieges, the defences of earth proved a most formi- 
dable obstacle. Cannon were found wholly ineffective against 
them, as the balls buried themselves without doing injury; 
and tedious mining operations had to be resorted to before 
the place was taken. The garrison resisted vigourously, espe- 
cially during the first siege, when the loss of life was so great, 
in storming the walls, that the British army was almost re- 
pulsed. The earthworks are now in great want of repair, but 
enough remains perfect to show how formidable they must 
once have been. 

* " Residents" — the title of the Enghsh Agents of the Honourable Com- 
pany at the courts of native princes. 



Agra to Jaipoor. 313 

The Rajah's palace, situated within the fort, is of redstone, 
whitewashed. It possesses no architectural merit, being 
merely a great square building, four or five stories high, with 
marble pavilions on the roof. We were not allowed to enter, 
but did not much regret our exclusion. There are in the city- 
one or two other palaces of similar construction, inhabited by 
the Rajah's relatives. 

We walked around the walls of the fort, admiring the 
beauty of the country, which is principally owing to the fine 
groves of old trees ; and the very great fertifity of the soil, 
which is all alluvial, and overflowed every year, as I have 
described when speaking of Futtehpoor Seekree. 

The fortifications were dismantled, but there were still a 
few cannon remaming. They were of immense size, but of 
ridiculously small bore. 

When we had made the circuit of the fort, we descended, 
and passed out of one of the gateways, which had bronze 
doors of great size, and very finely decorated with carved 
work. 

Crossing the bridge over the moat, we returned to the 
bungalow, first going over several large mud fortifications, 
now deserted, but showing, like the large fort, that there were 
Todlebens in Central India, before Sebastopol was thought of. 

We had intended to make an excursion to Deeg, a j^lace 
twenty miles distant, which is the summer residence of the 
Bhurtpoor Rajahs. It contains several fine buildings; and 
gardens, which; with the pavilions they contain are, I should 
fancy, the finest in India. However, finding that we could 
get no conveyances but camels, and that it would delay us at 
least a day, we gave it up. 

Deeg was the scene of a great battle, in 1804, between the 
English and Maharattas. The loss of the English was two- 
ninths'*^ of their whole force — a very large proportion, but not 
greater than that sustained by them in many other engage- 
ments in India. These great losses are not to be attributed 
to what is called " a hard-fought field," but to the habit of the 

* Even in the battle of "Waterloo, the English loss was only one in six ; 
and that is a very large proportion for a European battle. 

14 



314 India. 

English soldiers of dashing up to the enemies' batteries, in the 
face of a deadly and rapid fire, (for natives are among the 
best artilleiymen in the world,) and carrying the guns at the 
point of the bayonet, thus finishing the battle at a single 
stroke ; for the natives do not long resist after their guns 
are taken, and generally disperse as soon as they are brought 
to close quarters. . 

N'ot being able to go to Deeg, we spent an hour or so of 
the morning at the Rajah's menagerie, where there were a 
number of animals, among others, two giraffes, m large bam- 
boo cages. We could not learn were these came from. A 
number of game-cocks and fighting quails were kept in the* 
menagerie, the combats of these birds being a favourite amuse- 
ment of native princes. The keejDers set some of the quails at 
each other, without spurs, but it seemed poor sport, as one of 
the combatants y,^as sure to' run away after the first en- 
counter. 

We also got up wrestling and boxing-matches among the 
boys, by offering rewards for the best performers. The 
Avrestling was exceedingly good, as it is everywhere a favour- 
ite exercise among the supple Hindoos ; but the boxing did 
not succeed. The first blow in the face made the receiver 
whimper, and the " set-to" was so evidently a sham, that we 
withheld the promised reward. 

We dined at eight in the evening, and started at midnight 
for Bosawur, thirty-seven miles to the westward. 

On awaking, the next morning, we got out of our dhoolees, 
and walked eight or nine miles. The country generally ap- 
peared fertile and well cultivated, and the path by which we 
were travelling (for we had left the road, in order to make a 
short cut,) was bordered by well-tilled fields, and orchards of 
trees, bearing a fruit like the plum. Although this was the 
general character of the country, yet we passed through sev- 
eral miles of jungul, upon which we saw a very large herd of 
deer. They were, like all wild animals in India, not at all shy, 
and let us approach quite near, but not near enough to be 
within range of our smooth-bore guns. 

During this journey we often regretted not having a rifle 



Agra to Jaipoor. 3i_j 

in the party, as we might without any trouble have shot 
a deer ahnost every day, which would have been no bad 
thing in a country where chicken and goat's flesh is the only 
meat procurable ; and even that not always to be had. 

Before reaching Bosawur, we came in sight of some hills, 
the view of which, although they were distant, was a great 
relief after the monotonous dead-level of Northern India. In 
fact, we were now entering a hilly region, in wiiich we may 
be said to have continued all the way down to Bombay, for 
although we frequently marched for days together over broad 
and perfectly leA^el plains, yet, even there, there was almost 
always a mountain or range of hills visible upon the horizon to 
remind us of what we had come through, and of what we had 
still to pass. 

We arrived at Bosawur dak-bungalow at two in the after- 
noon, and ordered hreahfast^ to the great astonishment of 
Khansahma??-, who had never heard of taking that meal in the 
afternoon. 

After breakfast, we took a walk in the town of Bosawur, 
w^hich is small and dirty. The houses are almost all mere 
mud-huts, and the streets narrow, unpaved, and filthy. How- 
ever, having nothing better to do, we wandered all over the 
place, and finally came upon a native distillery, a very rude 
establishment under a thatched shed. A crowd of natives 
accompanied us in our walk, and we treated them to as much 
liquor as they could drink. The liquor is a kind of whiskey 
made of wheat, and is only used by the poorer classes. They 
drink it unmixed with water, and in incredible quantities. 
The price is fabulously low. 

We- got dinner about half-past nine, and left at m'idnight for 
Manpoor, distant four-and-twenty miles. 

Our walk on the morning of the i8th was again interesting. 
The country was hilly, and perfectly barren. jSTumerous 
travellers passed us on foot, on camels, on horseback, or in 
bullock-carts. They all treated us with the greatest respect, 
and saluted us with courteous salams. 

Just before arriving at Manpoor, we crossed a broad sandy 
nitllah^ or river's bed. A little wav off v>'e saw a herd of sev- 



2i6 India. 

eral hundred antelopes. They let us approach until we got 
within a hundred and twenty yards, and then trotted slowly 
off. I fired, notwithstanding, but with no other effect than 
causing them all to leap up eight or ten feet into the air, and 
then make off at full gallop. 

We reached the bungalow at noon, and after breakfast 
walked into Manpoor, which is a walled village, though very 
small. 

This was the first walled village we had met, but from this 
point, almost every place which we saw, however insignificant, 
was defended by mud walls and ditches. Until within a few 
years, such defences were absolutely necessary. They wei'e 
used to protect the inhabitants, sometimes against invading 
armies, sometimes against organized bands of robbers, but 
oftener against the freebooting incursions of neighbouring 
rajahs, and not unfrequently against the agents of their own 
ruler. The existence of these fortifications, so entirely dis- 
proportionate to the size of the places which they protect, is a 
striking proof of the perfect lawlessness which must have pre- 
vailed in these countries until quite recent times. At the 
present day, they are mostly falling gradually to ruin. In 
fact, they are no longer needed. The omnipresent arm of the 
East India Company protects the inhabitants in the enjoyment 
of their fives and property, far better than any defences which 
they can erect ; and peace and prosperity now reign where 
marauding incursions, bloodshed, robbery, and devastation 
were formerly matters of constant occurrence. 

Within the walls, Manpoor was a wretched collection of 
mud huts. We entered several Hindoo temples, the courts 
of which were decorated on the inner side with fresco' repre- 
sentations of mythological scenes, painted in very bright 
colours. We were obliged to take off our shoes before enter- 
ing these temples. 

Another object of interest was a yogee^ or Hindoo religious 
mendicant. He was a youth of about twenty years, entirely 
naked, smeared with mud and cow-dung, and altogether one 
of the most disgusting beings I ever set my eyes on ; still, the 
inhabitants seemed to treat him with great veneration. 



Agra to Jalpoor. 017 

We were followed in our walk by sixty or eighty boys and 
young men, and when we left the village, the people crowded 
along the ramparts to see us off; the great interest and cu- 
riosity which our appearance excited showing evidently that 
we had come to a country where Europeans are seldom seen. 

We left Manpoor about midnight for Buranah, twenty-eight 
miles off, and next morning, January 19th, after an early 
breakfast on the road, of ham and eggs, biscuits and coffee, 
we made our way through a barren and rocky tract of country 
to Buranah dak-bungalow — which we reached at half-past two 
in the afternoon. 

Just before arriving, we passed a zemindar, making a j^il- 
grimage to the shrine of Juggurnath, on the eastern coast of 
India, south of Calcutta. He was travelling in a bailee, or 
bullock-cart, shaded with a canopy of scarlet cloth. His train 
was very numerous, and comprised several well-armed men, a 
large number of servants and camels, horses and bullocks. 
The zemindar was a fine-looking, fat old fellow, but being a 
Hindoo, did not think it worth while to salam to us. 

Arrived at the dak-bungalow, we did not get anything to 
eat till four in the afternoon, and by the time we had finished 
breakfast it was so late that we gave up our usual walk through 
the village, and went out with a gun instead, to get some 
breakfast for the next day. We succeeded in bagging some 
ducks, pigeons, and a peacock. At ten in the evening, we 
dined, and about midnight left for a thirty miles' march to 
Jaipoor. 

At eight on the following morning, we took breakfast out- 
side a village, the whole public of which came out to look at 
us, and squatted around our j^alkees in admiring circles. 
While the bacon and eggs were being cooked by our servant 
over a fire of sticks built on the road, we took our guns and 
shot a great many pigeons, which afterwards did us good 
service at Jaipoor, where we could get scarcely anything to 
eat. 

After breakfast we walked for about ten miles. The country 
was again jungul, but we occasionally passed villages, around 
which the ground was cultivated, and seemed productive. The 



3i8 India. 

road was covered with people. We passed many travellers 
with escorts, and bullock-carts conveying merchandize east- 
ward. We now began to notice, what is a striking feature in 
Rajpootana, namely, almost every man is armed with a sword, 
and many with a shield and spear in addition. This custom, 
which is common to all states under native rule, and is par- 
ticularly noticeable in Oude, arises from the insufficient pro- 
tection to life afforded by native governments. In the Com- 
pany's dominions it has almost disappeared. 

About ten o'clock we came in sight of a high range of hills, 
beyond which the town of Jaipoor is situated. By one o'clock 
we entered the pass, where the road is very good, and the 
scenery exceedingly picturesque, as the sides of the pass are 
steep and the hills well wooded and green. 

We stopped the palkees near the entrance of the defile, and 
visited a large Hindoo temple and gardens belonging to a 
thakoor,^^ who has a country seat here. The buildings are 
all of white marble and well worth a visit. 

After walking for a quarter of a mile further, we came to a 
country palace of the Rajah, which we entered, and saw the 
gardens, and two large and handsome temples of Parbutee, 
who is represented by a hideous black doll, with a necklace of 
bleeding heads. The whole establishment is very extensive, 
reaching, with the gardens, more than half a mile on each 
side of the road. Free use had been made of the beautiful 
white marble for which Jaipoor is so famous, and which was 
conveyed on carts from this place to Agra and Delhi, for the 
construction of the Taj, and other architectural monuments 
of those cities. 

The road led for about half a mile further through the pass, 
and soon after emerging upon the plain we came in sight of 
Jaipoor, the extent and beauty of which much surprised us. 

The city of Jaipoor, which was built by Kajah Jai Singh, 
less than one hundred and fifty years ago, is situated in the 
midst of a beautiful plain, eight or ten miles broad, and com- 
pletely enclosed by lofty hills, the crests of which are crowned 

* ThaJcoor, a name given in Eajpootana to the great vassals ; elsewhere 
called jagheerdars, or zemindars. 



Agra to Jaipoor. ^IQ 

by a long fortilied wall, with tovrers at intervals. The town 
is more than a mile square, and surrounded by lofty walls of 
red sandstone, above which appear the marble v/alls of the 
palace, several domes, and a tall, square minar. Outside the 
walls are fine groves which give shelter to caravans of travel- 
lers, and on two sides the suburbs extend for some distance 
beyond the limits of the city proper. The situation of Jaipoor 
far surpassed in picturesqueness and beauty that of any other 
city which I saw in India. 

About five o'clock we arrived at the dak-bungalow, which 
is about a mile from the town. In the evening vre had a call 
from a young lieutenant in the Bombay army, stationed at 
Jaipoor in command of a company of Bombay sepoys, who 
formed the Resident's guard. The Resident himself was ab- 
sent, but this gentleman promised to get us elephants for the 
next day. 



CHAPTEE XXYII. 

J A I P E. 

Elephants— Beauty of the City — A Beautiful Temple — The Zenana and Palace — Its 
Kooms — Novel Stairways — View from Eoof— A Court — Eevenue Department — The 
English Eesident sitting Cross-legged on the Floor — Dewan Khas — Sitringees — 
Native Furniture— Curtain-ladies — A Lovely Character — Palace Gardens — His 
Highness' Toys — " Composite Architecture " — Native College — Marriage Nach — 
Observatory — Palace in Lake — Palaces of Ummeer — Splendid Yiew — Tiffin in the Ee- 
ception Court — Bishop Ileber's Praises of the Palace — BazAr of Jaipoor — History of 
Jaipoor. 

The following morning two fine elephants with howdahs^ 
scarlet jhools, or trappings, and several attendants and sjDear- 
men, took lis to view the sights of the place. On entering the 
gate we were surprised Iby the breadth and splendour of the 
principal street, used as a bazar, and extending in a straight 
line through the town from gate to gate. It is crossed in the 
centre by another similar street, dividing the city in the oppo- 
site direction. At the point of junction is a broad square, 
having in the centre a marble tank. One side of this square 
is occupied by the Rajah's palace, which, with its gardens and 
courts, occupies one-sixth of the town. 

Jaipoor, having been all built by one man, presents a regu- 
larity and uniformity of design unusual in Indian cities. The 
houses are generally two stories high, but those on the two 
great streets have three and even four stories. The material 
is commonly white-washed pukka, the style of architecture 
quite Moosulman, and the houses are decorated in front with 
ornamental windows and stone balconies, which are often finely 
carved. The whole population of Jaipoor must be nearly a 
hundred thousand, almost exclusively Hindoos. 

The first object visited by us was a small but very rich tem- 
ple in a side street. It was entirely buUt of white and beauti- 
fully polished marble, the interior being richly decorated with 



Jaipoor. ^21 

bright colours and gilding. Under a graceful and elaborately 
carved marble canopy was the idol, a diminutive black doll, in a 
long dress of rich brocade. This was Parbutee, the incarnation 
of all the most inhuman and barbarous qualities of the Hindoo 
gods. Throughout the Rajpoot states, her worship seems 
largely to have supplanted the Phallic worship) of her consort 
SecAva, who is the most popular deity in the rest of India. 

Leaving the temple, we went through one of the principal 
streets before described, along the wall of the zenana, which 
extends for half a mile from the palace. In one of the courts 
of the zenana rises a lofty square minar of stone, used, I be- 
lieve, as a watch-tower, and being one of the most conspicuous 
objects in the city, as it is visible from every part of the plain 
around the town. 

At the end of the zenana we came to the palace, which pre- 
sents to the square a lofty front, sevei) or eight stories high, 
flanked by two towers wdiich rise above the roof, and are 
topped by marble kiosks. The architecture, like that of the 
city, is impure Moosulman, the arches being flattened and 
cusped. 

Within the palace we were led through numerous apart- 
ments, which, like those of all other Indian palaces, were very 
small, though much decorated. The walls of one of the rooms 
were entirely covered with little looking-glasses, embedded in 
a sort of cement, which at a distance looked like frosted silver. 
The whole reminded me of the " Sheesh Maliul " in the fort 
of Agra. Our guide, one of the Rajah's servants, evidently 
considered this room the gem of the palace, and asked us if 
there w^ere such another in Europe ; to which question we 
answered, much to his satisfaction, that' there was not. 

The difierent stories of this palace were approached, not b} 
stairs, but by inclined planes, similar to those by which the 
visitor ascends to the roof of St. Peter's church at Rome. 

From the top of the palace, or rather from one of the mar- 
ble pavilions upon the roof, we had a magnificent view of the 
city, with its numerous palaces, temples and domes, the slender 
minars of a mosque, and the rows of fine buildings on the 
great streets, all of the purest white. The square and bazars 

14^ 



322 India. 

were filled with busy and f)ictiiresquely-dressed crowds ; be- 
yond the walls we could see the suburbs, and the broad groves 
which surround the city ; further off were lakes, with palaces 
upon islands in their midst, and the scene was bounded by the 
circle of hills, and the long lines of defensible walls. The 
whole yiew was so striking that we remained gazing for half 
an hour, and only descended because we were pressed foi* 
time. 

Having descended from the roof, we were led through sev- 
eral low and dark passages, and finally reached an open court, 
one half of which was occupied by a marble portico, raised 
uj^on a chubootra of the same material. This was used as a 
cutchurree,^ or court. The judge sat upon a carpet close to 
the wall, and was undistinguished from the crowds of natives 
squatted around him, except that he was smoking a hookah, 
which is, in Indian courts of justice, a privilege conceded only 
to the sitting magistrate. The open space below the chuboo- 
tra was crowded with a motley throng of suitors and spectators. 

The next court which we saw was larger, but similarly ar- 
ranged. The portico was appropriated to the revenue depart-* 
ment, and the floor was occupied by over fifty clerks, writing 
upon narrow shps of paperf which they rested on one knee. 
Several of the older oflicials in these courts wore the old Raj- 
poot j)ugree (turban), which is narrow, high, and bent back 
from the head. It is now but little used, most of the inhabi- 
tants wearing the small low jaunty turban of Hindoostan. 

From this court we proceeded to the Dewan Khas, or hall of 
private audience, where the Maharajah is accustomed to hold 
Durbar, and receive his high functionaries and vassals. On 
these occasions the Resident is accommodated Tvith a seat on 

* This designation is also applied to the courts of the European magistrates 
in the Company's dominions, and is generally spelt cutcherry. 

f Native paper (kaghuz) is very thick and brittle, made, I believe, of some 
woody fibre. It is very expensive. The ink is merely soot and water thick- 
ened with gum. It can be easily washed off— a circumstance often taken ad- 
vantage of in inconvenient treaties or contracts. The pen (kullum cf. 
calamus) is made of a sort of reed, and writes very well, being stronger and 
more durable than a quUl, though not so fine. 



Jaipoor. 323 

the floor, since the Rajah has not, like many of the other na- 
tive princes, become so Anglicized as to use chairs/^ 

The D ewan Khas consists of a marble platform raised five 
steps from the pavement of the com*t. It is covered vnih a 
roof of polished white marble, supported by columns and 
arches of the same material. It is about eighty feet square 
and open on all sides to the court, which is of considerable 
size, paved, and surrounded by the buildings of the palace, 
which are five stories hio-h and of red sandstone. On two 
sides of the court the palace front has on every story broad 
verandahs, arched in front, and lined with white marble. 

We went through one of these buildings, the rooms of 
which, like those of the other j^alace, were all small but richly 
decorated. The windows were formed by small panes of 
stained glass, said to be Venetian, inserted in slabs of marble 
openwork. As in all native apartments, there was no furni- 
ture, but several of the rooms contained sitringees, or quilts 
of scarlet cotton cloth wadded, which are spread over the floor 
for the guests to sit on when the rooms are used. These form 
the whole furniture of a native sitting-room, there being no 
tables or chairs. The bed-rooms contain only a low puUun, 
or bedstead, which is taken out during the day into a court. 
These peculiarities of native habits make the rooms in all the 
palaces look as desolate and deserted as the abandoned palaces 
of Agra and Futtehpoor Seekree. 

* Chinese sit on chairs, but natives of India never do, except when they 
have acquired the habit from Europeans. "When they sit on the ground, they 
squat in such a way that the legs are doubled, the soles of the feet are flat on 
the groiind, and the knees touch the chin. In fact they sit upon their heels. 
This position is quite impossible to a white man, but is very favourite with the 
supple Hindoos. The lower classes are particularly fond of perching in this 
way upon a wall, when they look exactly like monkeys. The upper classes, 
or those who sit on carpets, often cross their legs like Turks, but more gener- 
ally kneel down, and sit upon the ground with the legs slightly spread and 
bent backwards. This position, also, is impossible for a white man. But 
perhaps the most common position is to kneel down, and sit upon the lower 
part of the legs, the insteps touching the ground. The only substitutes for 
chairs ever used by the natives are very low stools, which they sit upon in 
the mode above described. A few ^Mahommedan piinces had thrones, wl^ch 
were always very high, and intended to be used in the same way. 



324 India. 

Each suite of apartments is entered by a strong and heavy 
wooden door, with a massive lock of the rudest construction, 
looking as if it had been copied from a prison-door of the Mid- 
dle ages. The arched jjassages between the separate apart- 
ments of the suite are, however, closed only by a purdah, or 
wadded curtain, or sometimes by a cliih^ a sort of blind of 
bamboo shreds, so arranged that those loithin can see out, 
whereas those on the outside cannot see in. From this cus- 
tom comes the expression applied to the ladies of the zenana, 
'' purdah ke undur," within the purdah, i. e. on the inside of 
the curtain which separates the zenana from the public apart- 
ments ; and hence, also, women of rank are called purdah-bee- 
bia?i, or curtain-ladies. 

We were particularly struck with one room in this part of tlie 
palace. Its walls were of v/hite marble, decorated with car- 
ving, gilding and painting, in a style elaborate beyond belief. 
Some of the panels contained paintings of various deities, and 
among them one of Bhowanee, the patroness of the Thugs, 
She is the same as Parbutee, two of whose temples I have 
described. Bhowanee was represented as a naked black 
female figure, wearing around her neck a necklace of human 
heads, bleeding. She had ten arms, with two of which she 
was tearing a baby in j^ieces. In another hand she held half 
of a man's body. The other half she had eaten, and her jaws 
dripped with the blood. A fourth hand was bearing an ele- 
phant and its rider to her liuge red mouth, glittering with a 
row of sharp, projecting tusks. This amiable character is 
supposed to smile a thousand years at the death of a single 
man slain in her honor. She is the patroness, and receives 
the homage of the Thugs and Dukoits, classes of professional 
robbers and murderers, who look upon the crimes which they 
commit as a religious duty, and who were fearfully numerous 
throughout India, until the great and successful efforts made 
during the present century by the Honourable Company for 
their suppression. 

This room overlooked the Gardens, to which we next de- 
scended, after swinging for a few minutes in a swing with a 
cushioned seat suspended by silken cords from the roof of one 
of the verandahs. 



Jaipoor. 325 

The gardens were extensive, laid out in Italian style, and 
well cared for. The alleys were paved with marble, and bor- 
dered by rows of trees. In the middle of the pavement was a 
marble canal, down which a stream of water, recruited at in- 
tervals by fountains, ran, to irrigate the various beds and 
grass-plots. There were several marble fish-ponds, and jets 
dPecm^ and graceful pavilions, terraces, and kiosks of white 
marble were distributed through the grounds. 

Having now seen all that we were allowed to, and a great 
deal more than we could have seen had not the Rajah been 
absent at one of his country residences, we prepared to leave 
the palace. Before doing so, however, we stopped in a sort 
of lumber room on the ground floor. Here we found a collec- 
tion of the most curious and dissimilar things that can be 
imagined. A model steam engine, an electric machine, a go- 
cart, saddles, old guns — in short, all the broken and used up 
toys of the Rajah. A native, seated by a table was repairing 
a French musical box, and upon the same table lay half a 
dozen valuable watches of English and Genevan construction, 
some of them enamelled, and all of them, as the workman said, 
the property of the Sircar,* who had been i^leased to break 
them. 

"We next went to see a new palace which is building for the 
Rajah, next door to the old one. The new building is of red- 
stone, and will be of great size, but was only completed as far 
as the first story. It was designed by a pundit high in the 
Rajah's service, who undertook to gratify a desire of his master 
for a residence " in the English style." Accordingly he read 
up some English works on architecture, and selected whatever 
he considered desirable. The full efiect of the result of his 
studies could not be seen in the building itself on account of 
its incomplete state, but we were shown a plaster model, pre- 
senting the most extraordinary combination of the Grecian, 
Roman, and Gothic styles. When finished it will look as Mr. 
Russell, the " Tbnes' " correspondent says of the Martiniere 

* Sircar — i. e. Sovereign. In Calcutta, the upper servant, wiio makes the 
purchases, is so called. 



326 India. 

at LucknoWj " as if it were the result of a competitive exam- 
ination of mad architects." 

We now again mounted the elephant and went through the 
streets of the town, passing many fine houses belonging to 
thakoors and other great men. 

Keturning to the principal square, we visited the college, a 
large building opposite the palace. "We were too late to see 
the students, but went through the lecture-rooms, the walls 
of which were hung with good maps and mathematical dia- 
grams, published in England, but having the names of the 
countries and other words and letters in Sanscrit characters. 
The back part of the college is devoted to a temple, which is 
a feature in all palaces and large edifices of Hindoo construc- 
tion. 

After visiting the college, we went home on the elephants, 
passing a large menagerie of tigers and leopards belonging to 
the Rajah, to whom also belonged a number of animals of the 
deer kind, that we saw in enclosures around the city. On the 
way home we stojDped for a few minutes to see a marriage-nach 
in the open air. The young couple were laden with finery, 
and sat upon a carpet. The relatives and friends of the family 
in their best dresses squatted around, forming a circle about 
the nach girls. Outside stood the general public. As soon as 
the nach girls saw that we stopped, they turned round and 
began singing a song in our honour — a proceeding that very 
much disgusted the bridal party. Making the girls a present 
of two rupees, and receiving their low salams, we took our 
departure and returned to the dak-bungalow, where we dined 
and passed the night. 

The next day, we again mounted the elephants and went to 
a place called Ummeer, three miles from Jaipoor, at one end of 
the valley in which the latter city is situated. TJmmeer was 
formerly the capital of this raj, until Jai Sing built the present 
city called after his name, and transferred to it his capital, 
about 130 years ago. 

In order to take the Ummeer road we had to pass through 
the town, and, in so doing, stopped at the palace to see the 
observatory connected with it, which we had omitted to visit 



Jaipoor. 327 

on the previous day. The observatory is a large establishment, 
contained in a vast unpaved court, but does not merit a 
description here, being very similar to those at Benares and 
Delhi — all these having been founded by Jai Singh. 

The road to Ummeer was very interesting, being bordered 
on each side by a succession of groves, country-houses, and 
beautiful gardens containing pavilions of redstone and white 
marble. 

About a mile from Jaipoor, we passed a large lake, upon an 
artificial island in the midst of which, was built a white mar- 
ble palace, surrounded by gardens and terraces — the whole 
much larger and more beautiful than the famous " Isola Bella" 
in the Lago Maggiore. 

Ummeer is situated in a narrow gorge, at the head of the 
valley. A lake occupies the lowest ground, and around it are 
the ruins of the city, which must have been once a large place. 
The only perfect buildings which remain, are several temples 
of a hard grey stone, very elaborately sculptured. But the 
principal objects are the palaces and fort, three immense lines of 
buildings on the steep side of the hill. The lowest of the three 
was four hundred feet above the lake. The fort, which is the 
oldest and strongest, was perched on the very crest of the 
hill, and the third palace was half way between the other two. 

We were not allowed to visit the two higher forts, on the 
usual i^lea of there being a zenana there, but the lower palace, 
over which we were conducted, surprised us greatly by its 
extent and beauty. The architecture and general arrange- 
ment were similar to those of most of the palaces Avhich I 
saw. There were the same broad courts of reception, the 
same long ranges of small, but elaborately decorated rooms, 
the same beautiful little garden courts with marble fountains 
and arched marble porticoes, the same delicately carved balco- 
nies ; but from these latter we got such a view as I did not sec 
elsewhere in India. The valley is here narrow and dark, the 
hills are steep, rugged, and thickly wooded ; at the bottom 
lies the lake surrounded by gardens and temples. Where the 
valley closes on the left, are the solemn grey ruins of the old 
city ; its opening on the right shows you the green valley of 



328 



India. 



Jaipoor, the lake and palaces ; and far in the distance the city 
itself, with its minar and domes, shines white over the dark- 
green groves which surround it. 

The view was intrinsically striking and picturesque ; the 
romance of the locality and its architectural features gave it 
an additional charm ; but no one who has not travelled as 
we had for months, over the bare dead level of northern 
India, can appreciate the unalloyed enjoyment with which we 
gazed upon the scene. 

The Dewan Am is one of the most striking features of the 
building. It is a very large square platform of white marble, 
open on one side to a great court, and on the other looking 
out upon the valley. It is covered by a heavy white marble 
roof, supported on low square pillars, without arches ; the 
absence of which, and the massiveness of the roof, gave the 
architecture a very Hindoo air. We found a sitringee in the 
building, and sitting down upon it, took lunch and a bottle of 
beer, after which one of the party read aloud Bishop Heber's 
description of the building, in the laudations of which we all 
concurred. It concludes thus : — " The carving in stone and 
marble, and the inlaid flowers and ornaments in some of these 
apartments, are equal to those at Delhi and Agra, and only 
surpassed by the beauties of the Taj Mahul. My companions, 
none of whom had visited TJmmeer before, all declared that, as 
a whole, it was superior to the Castle at Delhi. For myself, I 
have seen many royal palaces containing larger and more 
stately rooms, many, the architecture of which is in finer 
taste, and some which cover a greater extent of ground, 
(though in this^ if the fortress on the hill be included, TJmmeer 
will rank, I think, above Windsor,) but for varied and pic- 
turesque effect, for richness of carving, for wild beauty of 
situation, for the number and romantic singularity of its 
apartments, and the strangeness of finding such a building in 
such a 23lace and country, I am able to compare nothing with 
Ummeer. " 

After our tiffin we visited a small and dirty temj^le, the floor 
of which was stained with the blood of sacrificed goats. Three 
or four dirty Brahmuns, who were squatted on the ground. 



Jalpoor. 329 

humming their poorans* in a monotonous voice, scowled at 
us as we entered. We found there was nothing to see, and 
as this was the last sight of the palace, we went out of the 
gate and descended the hill by a steep carriage road paved 
with blocks of redstone. The road passes under two large 
archways belonging to two separate lines of fortification for 
the protection of the palace. 

At the bottom of the hill we found our elephants, and re- 
turned upon them to Jaipoor. The road varied slightly from 
the one by which we had come, and passed through a grove, 
the trees of which were perfectly full of monkeys. There are 
plenty of these animals and peacocks in all the country about 
Jaipoor, but in this place it really seemed as if there were not 
room for one more. 

On our return to Jaipoor we walked through the bazar to 
make a few purchases, preceded by the spearmen and other 
servants, and followed by our elephants and a large miscella- 
neous and admiring public. We noticed in the streets several 
tame leo^^ards tied to bed-posts, to accustom them to the sight 
of men. They were not chained or muzzled, and played like 
cats with their keepers. 

We returned to the dak-bungalow late in the evening, and 
getting through dinner about midnight, started at one o'clock 
in the morning for Bugroo. 

A few jDarticulars with regard to the history of Jaipoor may 
not be out of place here. The Kajahs of Jaipoor were once the 
wealthiest and most powerful of all the rulers of Rajasthan, or 
Rajpootana. Their revenue was a cror of rupees, or a mihion 
of pounds sterling annually. Although nominally subjects of 
the court of Delhi, their position and power always enabled 
them to maintain a virtual independence. Their prosperity 

* Foorans. — A word derived from the Hindee poorana, signifying old. It 
is applied to all the sacred writings of the Hindoos ; but in a narrower sense 
is sometimes confined to the later writings. Although these last were writ- 
ten between the eighth and sixteenth centuries of our era, and are a mass of 
as absurd, incredible and contradictory fables as were ever got together, yet 
they are now regarded by the Brahmuns as of equal age and authenticity with 
the Yedas, and are almost exclusively studied. 



330 India. 

may be judged of from the great works executed by Jai 
Singh,: the four observatories, the palaces, and the city. This 
prosperity was blighted by the conquests of the Maharattas. 
The thakoors took advantage of the disturbances to revolt, and 
were continually engaged in feuds and in predatory excursions 
which stripped the unfortunate inhabitants of the little left 
them by the bands of Pindarrees, a nation of robbers wlio 
devastated the country as each year came round. The power 
of the Rajah was almost extinct, and his revenue was reduced 
to almost nothing. In his despair he applied to the British, 
who reinstated him in his dominions and restored order. 
After his death, one of his wives assumed the government, 
and administered it so badly, rejecting the authority and 
counsel of the English Resident, that when Bishop Hebei* 
visited the place, she had nearly lost all authority over the 
thakoors, who were resuming their old practices, and tlie 
country was fast relapsing into a state of anarchy which would 
encourage a renewed invasion of Maharattas. Subsequently, 
however, British influence again became predominant, public 
confidence and prosperity were restored, peace at home and 
security against foreign invasion were guaranteed by their 
power, and when I visited Jaipoor the authority of the Rajah's 
government was recognized throughout his territories and his 
revenue was steadily growing to something like its old pro- 
portions. 



CHAPTEE XXYIIL 

RAJPOOTANA — "THE COUNTRY OF PRINCES.'' 

Bugroo — Peacock Shooting — Tliakoor's House — Dhoodoo — Superstition about Wells — 
Jain Tenijile — Kisliinghur — Visit from Baboo — Ilajah's Palace — Excitement of the 
Public — A Dancing Elephant — Iload to Ajmeer — Scenery — Dress and Manners of 
Eajpoots — A Providential Rencontre — Fort of Ajmeer — Shrine of the Saint — Euins 
of a Hindoo Palace — Xusseerabad — Bombay Sepoys — The Shop of a Fire-worshi[)per 
— Bunai — Hindoo Cooking — The Fortress — A Native Huntsman — Dablali — Filial 
Grief — Bunaira — Eemarkable Castle — Eoad to Ummeerghur — Cheap Meat — The Day 
ofEest. 

On the morning of January 230!. we arrived at Bugroo dak- 
bungalow. It is situated on a vast and barren plain with 
nothing in sight but a garden of large trees a quarter of a mile 
behind the bungalow. After breakfast we went out and shot 
a good many pigeons, as well as some peacocks which we 
found in the trees of the garden. The latter are easy to kill, 
and looked like meteors as they caine tumbling down to earth 
through the leaves and branches of the trees. 

In the afternoon we took a Avalk through the village, which 
is about half a mile behind the garden. We found it a mere 
collection of mud huts, the inliabitants of which looked sut- 
liciently dirty and wretched. In the centre is the residence 
of the thakoor, surrounded by a moat and fortifications. Tiie 
town also is surrounded by a high and broad wall of earth. 
We learned that this thakoor has to pay a tribute of three 
lakhs ($150,000), in return for which he has the absolute gov- 
ernment of a largo tract, and rents to probably double that 
amount. 

The following day we stopped at Dhoodoo, twenty-three 
miles from Bugroo. This place was also on a plain, with hills 



332 India. 

visible on the horizoii. The village was about a quarter of a 
mile off, surrounded by mud walls, above which was seen the 
thakoor's residence, a large white building. After breakfast 
we walked uito the village, which was, like the others, a col- 
lection of miserable hovels. In the centre was an nnpaved 
square containing the thakoor's house, which was defended 
by stone walls and bastions. On the walk back to the bunga- 
low we passed a fine well going to ruin, and which 'will never 
again be used, as the water was defiled by a man falling into 
it and being drowned.^' The country around the village was 
all cultivated in cotton and tobacco. We saw some deer, and 
heard of plenty more, but there was no getting a shot at them 
as our guns were all smooth-bored. In the afternoon we went 
out to shoot some wild ducks in a pond near by, but the ducks 
were too wild, and we had to be contented with getting some 
pigeons. 

Towards evening I walked again into the village with Gib- 
son and visited a temple of the Jains, a sect which sprang 
from among the Indian Boodhists when they were persecuted 
by the Brahmuus. They practised their religion secretly for 
a long time. ISTow they are quite numerous in some parts of 
India, and count among their ranks many wealthy men. 

This temple was built of white marble, and consisted of a 
small court, at one end of which was an arched portico, where 
were the idols, three in number, under a finely carved canopy. 
I could see no resemblance in the figures to the statues of 
Boodh in China. 

At ten in the evening we dined, and at one o'clock the next 
morning we left Dhoodoo. 

Daylight found us on a desert and rocky plain, with hills 
not far off, and plenty of deer in sight. We breakfasted be- 
side a well, and walked to Kishinghur, which was about two 

* A remarkable illustration of this Hindoo prejudice was afforded during 
the siege of the English and faithful native regiments in the Lucknow Resi- 
dency. One of the garrison was killed while drawing water, and his body 
tumbled into the well. From that time the Sepoys of the garrison refused to 
drink the water, although what could be procured from other sources was in- 
ferior in quality and uncertain in supply. 



Rajpootana. 333 

miles off. The town of Kishinghur is the capital of an inde- 
pendent native state. It is situated on the banks of a small 
lake, surrounded by rugged hills, and is fortified by high and 
strong stone walls. 

In the centre of the town there is a hill about two hundred 
feet high, on which the Rajah's castle is built. It is surrounded 
by fortifications, and the space between the foot of the hill 
and the shore of the lake is laid out as a garden. 

We entered Kishinghur through a very large gate, and 
walking through the long bazar, passed out on the other side 
of the town, and found a garden of pomegranate trees beyond 
the wall, where it is customary for European travellers to put 
up. In the garden was a stone pavilion where we took up our 
quarters. A baboo in the Rajah's service soon paid us a visit. 
He said that his Highness sent his salam and wished to know 
if he could serve us. We expressed a desire for some provi- 
sions, and wood for cooking, and also a wish to see the Rajah, 
They afterward sent us what we had asked for, except meat, 
which was not procurable ; at the same time we were informed 
that his Hi2:hnes3 lamented that he would be unable to receive 
us on account of an indisposition (attributable no doubt to our 
not being in the Honourable Company's service). The rajah, 
however, sent us two of his elephants, upon which we visited 
the town and castle. The latter is quite extensive, and the 
defences are strong. We were not allowed to enter the pal- 
ace, which is situated within, so after a w^alk around the ram- 
parts, from which the view is very picturesque, we descended 
to the gardens near the lake. These were not well cared for, 
and after a short walk we got tired of them and crossed in a 
boat to an island in the lake, on which there were two small 
summer-houses or pavilions of white marble, very pretty and 
graceful. 

We afterwards went through the principal streets of the 
town, w^hich seemed well built, and contained several very 
fine stone houses. A crowd of at least a hundred idlers and 
boys followed us all through the town, yelling and shouting, 
as the street boys of New York would do if a Hindoo Rajah 
were to drive up Broadway in a sulky. 



334 India. 

On our return to our quarters in the garden, we were in- 
formed that one of the elephants danced and walked on his 
hind 'legs. Accordingly, we gave orders to have him perform, 
which he did to our entire satisfaction. The sight of the huge 
beast walking toward us, with his forelegs in the air, and his 
trunk raised perpendicularly, was one of those things that are 
exactly on the boundary line between the sublime and the 
ridiculous. 

Soon after sunset it began raining very hard, so that it was 
impossible to think of continuing our journey. "We had our 
palkees and dhoolees set under the roof of the pavUion, and 
slept in them that night. 

ISText morning, January 26, the storm was over, and we 
started at noon for Ajmeer — seventeen miles distant. We 
walked three-quarters of the way, and found it very pleasant, 
as there was a delightful breeze blowing. 

The road, which was a mere wagon-track, led among wild 
and rocky hills, many of which were croT^nied with forts and 
castles, now deserted. We saw many sheep, and some 
deer. 

The travellers whom v/e passed were few in number. They 
wore their beards shaven under the chin, and brushed back 
towards the ears in the Rajpoot fashion. Their dress was the 
dhotee, or cotton cloth wrapped around the waist and de- 
scending in loose folds to the knees. The upper part of the 
body was covered with a short and tight-fitting jacket. All 
of them were armed, and had quite a martial look. As they 
passed us, they did not deign to salute, but looked us full in 
the face with an insolent stare, which would have been alone 
sufficient to show us we were no longer in Hindoostan. 

The women wore the old Hindoo dress, the dhotee below 
the waist, and the saree, or vail, covering the upper part of 
the body, and falling over the head.* 

* In Hindoostan many of the women wear thick petticoats. The Moosul- 
manee women wear tight trowsers, with or without a petticoat. As regards 
man's dress, the pawjama, or trowsers, introduced by the Moosulmans, is 
v>'om by all of that religion, and sometimes also by Hindoos. All over India 



Rajpootana. 335 

We arrived at Ajmeer about eight o'clock in the evening, 
and were at a loss where to put up, as there was no dak- 
bungalow. Fortunately, we met the magistrate in a shi- 
grara,* drawn by a pair of bullocks. He was kind enough 
to conduct us to an empty bungaloY\% in the use of which, 
he said, we should not be disturbed. Had we not met the 
magistrate, I do not know how we could have managed, ex- 
cept by sleeping in our palkees on the road, and giving up 
dinner. 

The town of Ajmeer, as well as Xusseerabad, fourteen 
miles off, where there is a station of troops, belong to the 
English, and are the first places in the Company's Rajf 
that we had been in since leaving Futtehj^oor Seekree. 

The bungalow that we occupied had np furniture, so we 
had our palkees and dhoolees brought into the large central 
apartment, to be used as beds. Fortunately, we found a table 
and some chairs in the dining-room, and late at night our ser- 
vant managed to get us some dinner. 

Next morning we walked into town, a mile and a half. It 
is situated on the gentle slope of a hill which rises behind the 
town, steeply, to a great height, and is crowned by a large 
and very strong fort, now deserted, as are all the hill-forts in 
the British territories. 

The native princes always fortified their towns and palaces, 
and many of them, for greater security, built their castles on 
almost inaccessible crags. This was necessary, not only for 
protection against external enemies, but also against their 
own vassals and subjects. This policy, however, was never 
pursued by the English. Even in places where there were 
forts of great strength, the English troops were stationed out- 
side the towns in cantonments, which were not defended by 

Hindoos and Moosulmans are distinguished by the v»^ay in which the double- 
breasted jacket, or chupkun, is fastened. The Moosulmans invariably tie it 
on the left side, the Hmdoos, and all other sects, on the right. 

* Shigram. A two-wheeled, covered cart, much used by European ti'avel- 
lers in the Bombay Presidency. 

f Eaj, i. e., jurisdiction. It is the word from which Rajah, Rajpoot, &c., are 
formed. 



336 India. 

even a wall of earth. The old native strongholds were suf- 
fered to go to ruin, with the exception of the fort of Delhi, 
which was kept up by the titular Emperor from his allowance ; 
and that at Agra, which was preserved and kept in repair, 
principally as an arsenal, and also as an interesting archi- 
tectural monument. The forts of Calcutta, Bombay, and 
Madras, which were constructed by the English, stand on a 
different footing, as they were intended principally for defence 
against foreign nations. 

The calm confidence of the English, in thus neglecting all 
means of defence, produced a most powerful impression on 
the natives, contrasting, as it did, with the conscious inse- 
curity of former rulers, who immured themselves in their 
castles, surrounded themselves with foreign troops, when they 
could be obtained, and lived, as it were, with the sword always 
drawn.* 

Ajmeer is a considerable and well-built town, but possesses 
few objects of interest. We went into a large and fine house, 
belonging to a banker, in the court-yard of which we found 
a number of Brahmun cooks preparing the dinner. There 
were many other large residences, all, like the first, built 
of stone, several stories high, and with flat roofs, like the 
houses of Benares. We admired much the oriel windows, 
which we here saw for the first tune. They were made of 
elaborately-carved brown stone, and, in place of sashes, had 
slabs of fine marble open-work. 

Feeling tired and hot, we now hired a bailee, or bullock- 
carriage, and went to see the tomb of a Moosulman saint, 
which is an object of great veneration, and the resort of pil- 
grims from all parts of India. It was to the tomb of this saint 
that the Emperor Akbur made a pilgrimage, when in despair 
on account of the premature death of all his children, and here 
the saint appeared to him in a dream, and directed him to 



* Some of the native prin3es used to have looking-glasses set in the front 
of the hovy'dah, when they went oiit on an elephant, for fear the chattah- 
burdar, or umbrella-bearer, who rode behind them, should stab them in the 
back. 



Rajpootana. 337 

San Suleem, at Seekree, by whose intercessions he obtained an 
heir to his crown. 

They would not let lis go within the enclosure without re- 
moving our shoes, so we gave up the attempt, as what we 
could see through the gate did not look very interesting. 

On leaving: the shrine of the saint we visited the remains of 
an old Hindoo palace, a little way up the hill. The ruins 
were extensive, but the only part that remained at all perfect 
was a lofty hall with a brown stone roof, supported on nume- 
rous columns of the same material. The columns were slim in 
proportion to their height, and each differed from every other 
in shape; one would be square, one round, another hexagonal, 
another fluted, and so on for all the others, but all were most 
elaborately carved, as were also the deep panels of the ceiling, 
each of which had a different design. This hall was used as a 
mosque by the Moosulmans, who built a marble kibla in the 
west wall, and a series of lofty brown stone arches in front of 
the building. The arches are as large as those near the 
Kootub at Delhi, and at least as remarkable, there being the 
same beautifully sharp-cut inscriptions from the Koran in 
front. The mosque, however, like the more ancient building 
upon w^hich it was constructed, has long since fallen into dis- 
use and ruin. 

On the whole, onr expectations of Ajmeer were disap- 
pointed ; since we expected to find it a very interesting place, 
as it was once the capital of all the Rajpoot states. 

Nusseerabad is only fourteen miles from Ajmeer, and we 
arrived there at sun-rise on the 28th of January. The native 
town is not large, and the j^lace derives its whole importance 
from its being a large station of the Company's troops, whose 
presence preserves order in all Rajpootana. When we were 
in Nusseerabad the soldiers all belonged to the Bombay army 
— " Ducks," as they used to be called in Bengal. The Bombay 
sepoys are not nearly so soldierly in appearance as were the 
soldiers of the Bengal army. The latter were the pick of the 
Rajpoot race, the former were of all nations and castes. They 
were much inferior in size to the Bengal troops, and had a 
way of wearing their uniform when off duty, which a Bengal 

15 



338 India. 

sepoy never did, and which had two disadvantages. In the 
first place, it spoiled the uniform for parade, and then it made the 
men appear to disadvantage, for a native never looks so badly 
as in European clothes. Notwithstanding this deficiency in 
their appearance, the experience of last year has shown them 
to be much the most faithful, and has stamped with approval 
the system of indiscriminate enlistment which was about being 
abandoned in Bombay in favour of the Bengal system of 
receiving into the army only the members of one or two 
favoured castes. 

At Nusseerabad we made a few purchases, at the shop of a 
Parsee. In the Bengal Presidency the stores of the stations 
are all kept by Europeans, and contain large assortments in 
which everything is of the best quality. The style of living 
in the smaller Presidencies is, however, much less expensive, 
and the shops are all kept by natives, generally Parsees, and 
are much inferior in the variety and quality of what is sold in 
them. 

We left Kusseerabad at midnight, and at six o'clock on the 
morning of the 29th arrived at Bunai dak-bungalow, which is 
situated half a mile from a semicircle of high and bald hills, at 
the foot of one of which the village is built, and on top of 
another is the Castle. A short distance in front of the bunga- 
low is a row of noble trees. As soon as we arrived, our 
bearers as was always their custom, went into the village 
bazar to buy food, which they afterwards cooked under the 
shade of these trees. Cooking is, among the Hindoos, a long 
and laborious operation, and each man has to cook his own 
food, unless he be rich enough to hire a Brahmun to do so for 
him. In the first place, a little mud-furnace, which can never 
be used a second time, has to be bmlt. Then water must be 
drawn, by each man for himself, and in his own lota, a brass 
vessel of which every Hindoo possesses one, and which he 
always takes with him when travelling. When the furnace is 
buUt, the water drawn, and the fire, which is generally of dried 
cow-dung, lighted, the man squats on the ground and draws a 
circle which encloses himself and all these things. Cooking 
then begins in the ordinary way, but each step of the process is 



Rajpootana. 339 

accompanied by religious ceremonies, and the meal must all be 
prepared and eaten within the magic circle. If anything un- 
clean, such as a man of another caste or an ordinary fowl, 
comes within the circle, the food has to be thrown away and 
the operation begun anew. On this account whenever we 
came near our bearers at their meals, they would at once cry 
out, " Rotee khata. Sahib, rotee khata," " We are eating 
bread, Sir," to drive us away. 

If anything remains unconsumed from one meal, it cannot 
be eaten the next day ; and if the laborious cooking operation 
cannot be gone through, the Hindoo can eat nothing but 
parched gram, a sort of pulse which tastes not unlike roasted 
peanuts. I have seen sepoys, at sea, Hving for a week together 
on this alone, and some of the higher castes will not eat even 
the gram, instances having been known where they have 
starved on shipboard rather than break the rules of caste. 

The absurdly stringent ceremonies of cooking, with the 
ablutions which precede, occupy a great length of time, and 
Hindoos, therefore, eat only one meal a-day — still this custom 
occasions an immense waste of time, and is one of the most 
oppressive and injurious restrictions of that heavy chain of 
caste-rules and prejudices which cramps every action of the 
Hindoo. 

In the afternoon we walked through the village, which has 
heavy mud walls ; and climbed up the hill to the castle, which 
is a massive structure on the very summit. From the foot of 
its walls the rocky hill-sides descend almost perpendicularly 
for a hundred feet, and the only approach is by a narrow 
stairway cut in the stone. After toiling up the ascent we 
were disappointed by finding the door closed, so we descended 
and returned to the bungalow, where we found a shikarree, or 
huntsman, who informed us that having heard of our illustri- 
ous names, he had come to offer us his salam, and to lay at 
our feet an antelope which he had shot. We accepted both, 
and gave him a rupee, with which he was well satisfied. 

The natives of India are remarkably good shots, but their 
guns are of the rudest description. The barrel is very long, 
and the stock straight. The charge is ignited by a match, 



340 India. 

which is held over the pan of priming by a sort of " hammer.'* 
When the aim is taken, the shooter presses upon a button, 
below the stock of the gun. The button communicates with 
the hammer, and brings it and the match down upon the 
priming. 

At half past eleven we left Bunai, and arrived at Dablah on 
the morning of January 30th. The country around the bun- 
galow is most uninteresting and level. The village is half 
a mile on the left, and contains nothing of interest but a 
Thakoor's Castle in ruins. 

We were startled during the morning by hearing some loud 
shrieks, and much weeping. We all sprang up at once, and 
running out, found that all the noise was made by two young 
women, who were walking slowly at a short distance from the 
bungalow. As they went along they continued to cry, and 
throw their arms about, with much apparent grief. Whenever 
they met any other women, they embraced, throwing their 
arms around each, one by one, and leaning their heads over 
the shoulders of the woman whom they were embracing — 
first to the right and then to the left. We were informed 
that they were two young wives who were returning to their 
husbands after a visit to their parents, and that it was con- 
sidered only proper that they should thus testify their sorrow. 

Our next stopping-place was Bunaira, where we arrived 
very early, as it is only fourteen miles from Dablah. The 
town of Bunaira was a mile from the dak-bungalow, so that 
we did not visit it ; but we had a fine view of the castle, 
which is a very large building situated on the crest of a hill 
overhanging the town, and having all the appearance of a large 
European fortification — even to the white palace, seen above 
the battlements, which with the turret on its roof looked from 
the distance very like a whitewashed chapel. 

Having only done such a short distance the previous night, 
we determined to push on, after getting breakfast. The dis- 
tance to the next bungalow was twenty-four miles, and a hard 
enough march it proved. We walked most of the way, to 
relieve the bearers, who had been awake since midnight. 
The country was mostly hilly and wooded jungul, in which 



Rajpootana. 341 

the road was so badly marked, that we several times lost our 
way. We, however, found some cultivation around the one 
or two villages which we passed, and saw a field of poppies, 
which showed that we were approaching Malwa, the great 
opium country of Western India. The poppies were in flower, 
and looked very beautiful, especially to me, who had not seen 
any other flowers in India, except those used in the worship 
of idols. 

We did not arrive at Ummeerghur till after eight o'clock, 
and got dinner at midnight. The next day we had to rest, as 
our bearers were quite used up by the twenty hours' march of 
the day before. We therefore spent the ist of February at 
Ummeerghur, and treated our men to some goats, which cost 
us eight anas, (24 cents,) apiece, and were, I suppose, bought 
by the men for one-half or two-thirds of that money. 

During the day, we walked out to the borders of a lake, 
just outside the town. Its banks were shaded by parallel 
lines of beautiful trees, in the shade of which we took our seat, 
and watched the women washing clothes, and the Brahmuns 
worshipping a shapeless stone, which they painted red, and 
decorated with silver ornaments. They could not venture to 
do the latter further north, as some sacrilegious Moosulman 
would be sure to walk off with the idol's jewelry. 

Towards evening, we walked into the town. It is of mode- 
rate size, walled, and built at the foot of a hill, on the summit 
of which is a ruined stone castle. The only objects of interest 
in the town were three very regular and handsome Hindoo 
temj^les, built in a row. 



CHAPTEE XXIX. 

COUNTRY OF THE MAHARATTAS. 

Arrival at Chittor— The Town — Eemarkable Situation of the Fortress— Seven Miles of 
Kuins— Tank — The Moon Lady — The Great Temple — Hindoo Eeligious Architec- 
ture — The Great Tower — Antiquity of Hindoo Euins — Eeligious Pic-nic — Enter the 
Maharatta Territories—" Zubburdustee" — " The Good Old Eule" — Poppy -fields— 
Neemuch — Noble Banyan Tree — Irrigation — Mundissoor — A Pleasant Eesting-place 
— Jowra — ^Nawab's English Palace— Khachrod — New Style of Architecture — Wrest- 
ling — The Soobah's Politeness — Oojen— The City — Temple of Kunaia — The God's 
Carriage — Indian "Punch" — The Maharattas — A Native Government — Professional 
Eobbing— Spread of the Maharatta Power — Nature of their Government — Their 
Subjugation by the English — Gwalior States — The Police— Indirect Utility of Native 
Misrule. 

We left Ummeergliur on the evening of February ist, and 
next morning I awoke on a jungul, separated from the other 
palkees, my "bearers having taken a short cut which compelled 
us to go a mile down the river for a ford, so that I arrived at 
the dak -bungalow of Chittor at eight o'clock, half an horn- 
after the others. The march was twenty-two miles. 

After breakfast, we went out to see the place, which had 
much excited our curiosity, as well from Bishop Heber's glow- 
ing description, as from the view of the minars and other 
prominent buildings which were visible from the dak-bun- 
galow. 

We had a very hot walk of a mile, over a bare and sandy 
plain, and then, crossing by a fine stone bridge over a river 
which is a tributary of the Jumna, we entered the town 
through a gateway in the stone wall which surrounds it. 

It is a place of about five thousand inhabitants, and was 
once the capital of an independent raj. We stopped in the 
bazar to eat some cocoa-nuts, and while we were so engaged, 
two chowkeedars, or native policemen, armed with sword and 



Maharatta Country. 343 

shield, came up with the kamdar's salam,* and said that they 
had directions to accompany us to see all the objects of inter- 
est, and that the kamdar regretted having no elephants to 
offer us. 

The fortress is situated on the level summit of a hill, rising 
behind the town, and extending for some distance on each 
side of it. The line of fortifications extends for ten or twelve 
miles around the edge of the hill, the sides of which are 
naturally precij)itous, or have been artificially scarped, so that 
it presents on all sides a perpendicular wall of rock, from 
eighty to a hundred and fifty feet in height. Lower down, 
the hill-side slopes more gradually to the plain on which the 
town is built. 

The only approach is by a road, beginning in the town, and 
winding along the side of the hill. It is broad enough for a 
wagon, well paved, wdth a stone wall on the outside, and five 
fine gateways, now in ruins, but anciently capable of defence. 

The summit of the hill is nearly level, and comj^rises within 
the fortifications a space 6f six or seven square miles, full of 
palaces, temples, tanks, minars, and the remains of many 
dwelling-houses. The latter were quite ruinous, but many of 
the other buildings were in good preservation, and some of 
the temples still in use. 

We first W' ent down into a deep tank, cut in the solid rock. 
The tank is supplied by a fine spring, which gushes out of a 
marble temple richly carved. On the other side is a large 
pavilion of brown s tone, with steps descending into the water. 
The place was delightfully cool and shady, the trees which 
grew on the bank above, leaned over the pool, and kept away 
the scorching beams of the sun ; and their boughs hung down 
almost to the w^ater's surface. We found it so pleasant a 
resting-place, after our hot and tiresome walk, that we could 
not persuade ourselves to quit it, and sat for a good hour on 
the steps of the pavilion, with our feet in the cool water of 
the tank. Our guide occupied the time by telling us of a 
great and powerful princess, the Chan.d Beebee, or Moon 

* The kamdax's salam, i. e., the compliments of the mayor. 



344 India. 

Lady, who once held her court here. The Emperor Akbur, 
he said, asked her in marriage, and when she refused, he 
besieged the fortress for seven years. At the end of that 
time, the place yielded to the assault, and Pudda Mahoot, (for 
that was the real name of the princess, and Chand Beebee was 
only a title,) collected all her women and treasure in a little 
house built upon a lake above, and there, rather than fall into 
her captor's hands, set fire to her place of refuge, and was 
burned up, with all her treasures, women, and children — a 
voluntary Joar, or human sacrifice to Bhowanee. This was 
the substance of what he said, freed from the decorations and 
inconsistencies, which were many, as he told it. How much 
truth there is in the story, I do not know. Something like it 
happened, as Bishop Heber says, at Oudipoor, and I heard 
nearly the same legend at several other places. The name of 
the Chand Beebee certainly appears in history as one of the 
most powerful and obstinate opponents who resisted the con- 
quest of the Dekkun by the Emperor Akbur. She sustained 
a long siege from his forces, in the fort of Ahmudnuggur, and 
was finally slain by a revolt of her own soldiery, during a 
second siege of the same place, conducted by Akbur in 
person. 

When we were sufficiently rested, w^e visited a deserted 
temple, immediately above the tank. It was very remarkable, 
not only for the elaborate carvings of dancing women, and 
other figures upon the outside, but for the curious idol in the 
interior. This was a colossal bas-relief of a head, eight feet 
high, quite unlike anything else which I saw in India, and 
looking as if it had come from Egypt. 

We had next a walk of half a mile in the sun, through the 
ruins of palaces and other buildings, which would no doubt 
have repaid examination, if we had had the time. We also 
passed several large tanks, hollowed out of the rock, and 
having stone pavilions on their banks, or sometimes upon arti- 
ficial islands in the water. 

At length we arrived at the largest temple, which is built 
entirely of white marble, very elaborately and deeply carved. 
Its form is the same as that of all Hindoo temples — the essen- 



Maharatta Country. 345 

tial part of which, the shrine, is everywhere a little dark 
apartment, over which rises the pyramidal spire which is a 
universal characteristic. This is the type of all mundras in 
India, the only variations being in the details and decorations. 
The approach to the shrine is by open porticoes, the roofs of 
which are supported by columns, and each of which rises a 
few stej)s higher than the last. The whole is situated within 
a court. 

The colonnades, or porticoes, and the court, are both non- 
essential features, and not often seen. In a few instances the 
roofs of the porticoes are supported by double or even triple 
rows of columns, and in one or two cases the courts which 
enclose the temple are very large, in one instance as much as 
four miles square ; but however extensive such accessory fea- 
tures may be, the shrine is always very small, massively built, 
and lighted only by a low door. 

This temple had two open porticoes, and was built in the 
midst of a court, perhaps a hundred and fifty feet square. The 
material of every part was pure white marble, elaborately 
sculptured. The goddess worshipped was Bhowanee, repre- 
sented by a hideous black figure, with her hands full of wea- 
pons and instruments of torture, her mouth smeared with 
blood, and her neck circled by a chaplet of skulls. There 
were three or four Brahmuns in the temple, who clamoured 
for bucksees, and when we refused it became very insolent. 
After we left the temple they brought water and washed the 
whole place, to free it from the defilement which it had con- 
tracted from our presence. The trouble which we had caused 
them did not cause us the slightest compunction ; on the con- 
trary, we were pleased by finding that we had been the means 
of interrupting their habitual laziness. One of our native 
guides considered it a most excellent joke ; but the other 
looked upon it in,a serious light, and seemed to be afraid of the 
revenge of the Brahmuns, though whether their anger would 
afiect his spiritual or temporal prosperity we could not quite 
understand. 

A little beyond this temple was the largest tank, upon the 
banks of which was a considerable palace of brown stone, and 

15* 



346 India. 

in the centre another similar building upon an artificial island. 
The latter is assigned by tradition as the spot where the 
Chand Beebee and her ladies burned themselves to death. 

The ruins extended for some distance further, but we had 
no time to make more extensive explorations. 

On the way back we visited the minar, which is almost a 
unique object, there being but one similar building in India, 
and that is in this same place, about a mile off. The minar is 
a rectangular tower, 120 feet high, and about 25 feet square 
at the base. It is built with two walls, one inside the other ; 
the inner wall enclosing the stairway, and the outer wall 
forming an open verandah at each of the nine stories. The 
two upper stories project considerably beyond the hne of the 
buildmg, and the whole is surmounted by a cupola, which 
looks like a late addition. The whole is built of the finest 
white marble, and almost every part of its surface, inside and 
out, is decorated with the most elaborate and intricate de- 
signs, representing either the exploits of Seewa, or naked 
nien and women celebrating the phallic orgies of his worship. 
The building itself typifies the Lingam* — the form under 
which Seewa is always adored. From the top of the minar 
we got a fine view of the table land on which all these ruins 
are situated, the town at the foot of the hill, the river flowing 
eastward to unite its waters with the Jumna, and the broad 
level plain, stretching with almost unbroken uniformity to the 
foot of the distant hills. 

The minar is in the most excellent preservation, even the 
most delicate sculptures being almost perfect throughout. 
It is said by the natives to be five hundred years old, but that 
is probably an exaggeration. In fact, nothing in India disap- 
points the traveller so much as the age of the monuments. 
Almost all the buildings of great architectural pretensions 
were erected by the Mahommedans, and veiy few are more 
than 300 years old. The most ancient of these buildings is 
the Kootub at Delhi, which was completed about the year 

* JOingam — a wide-spread religious emblenij called by the Greeks ^allogj 
and by the Latins, Priapus. 



Maharatta Country. 347 

1 200, although it probably was begun earlier. The Hindoo 
remains are very few, and a very small proportion of them 
are at all remarkable for size or grandeur. The most ancient 
of them are undoubtedly the cave temples, but even these are 
now proved to be not more than a thousand years old, and 
many persons attribute to them a much later date. Of the 
other remains, but two or three temples are as old as the 
thirteenth century, and most of them would be modern when 
compared with the age of European cathedrals. 

As we were leaving the top of the hill we went into a court- 
yard containing two small temples. Here we found about two 
hundred people from a neighbouring village, who had come to 
celebrate poojah for three days at this shrine — a sort of re- 
ligious pic-nic. The peoj)le in this part of the country are a 
much more open, manly race, than those in Northern India. 
They at once asked us to have something to eat, and seemed 
much pleased when we consented. They brought us some 
bread, muraba, or sweetmeats, and dhal, which is a kind of 
pulse, eaten as a stew. The latter they served to us on broad 
green leaves, plaited into a kind of bowl. The bread was 
coarse, but well baked, and the dhal we found quite savory, 
especially as we were very hungry. It was a great satifaction 
to know that the food was certainly clean, as the religion of 
the Hindoos obliges them to observe the most scrupulous clean- 
liness in cooking. 

The sweetmeats which I have described above are an article 
of food of which the natives are immoderately fond ; and many 
of those who can afford it, eat scarcely anything else. They 
are made of the ordinary soft brown sugar,'* and have its 
characteristic taste. 

After thanking our entertainers, and rewarding them with 
a present, we returned to the dak-bungalow, took dinner, and 
at ten in the evening started for Neemuch, thirty-eight miles off. 

* Sugar is commonly used by the natives in its raw state. They call it 
sukJcur, a Sanscrit word from which all European names of sugar are evi- 
dently derived. The only process of refining practised is by crystallization ; 
the result of which is called khand — the same word as candy. When pre- 
pared for use by pulverization the khand is called misree. 



348 India. 

This was the last day's march in the Rajpoot states, Nee- 
much being in a tract which belongs to the Rajah of Gwalior, 
or Sindia,* as he is more generally called. In fact, for the 
next three hundred miles the road led through a great many 
different independent states, many of them so small that they 
are quite surrounded by the dominions of other princes ; and 
we were scarcely ever for twenty miles together in the terri- 
tories of the same Rajah. 

On the morning of February 3d we awoke in a desert 
looking country, and soon stopped at a village for breakfast. 
Our kuhars commenced stealing the wood of the villagers to 
make their fires, a proceeding which we at once stopped — but 
we never could cure them of stealing and taking by force 
anything that they fancied from the villagers, and they used 
even to compel the peasants to accompany them by night, 
without reward, as guides. Such acts are called in India 
" zubburdustee," a term which means " by force," and is a 
short condensation of that great law which is the only rule 
universally recognized and acted upon by natives : 

"The good old rule, the simple plan 
That they should take who have the power 
And they should keep who can." 

We applied to the kotwal, or head-man of the village, for 
provisions, but could only get some maida, a coarse kind of 
flour, and a little ghee, or boiled butter. We asked for fowls ; 
but the kotwal said that the villagers were aU Rajpoots, and 
could not eat them, so that there were only three or four 
fowls in the place, which were kept in case the Maharatta 
governor should come that way, for the Maharattas, being low 
caste men, can eat fowls. 

After breakfast we kept on our way through a country the 
greater part of which was barren, but around the villages 

* The three great Maharatta princes are each known by an hereditary title. 
The Eajah of G-walior is called Sindia ; the Rajah of Indor, Holkar ; and the 
Rajah of Baroda has the title of the Gaikwar. These appellations are some- 
times spelt Scindeah or Sindheeah, Holcar, and Guicowar or Gykwar, and in 
other ways also. 



Maharatta Country. 349 

were patches of maize and poppies. About half a mile from 
Neemiich we were overtaken by a very violent rain storm, 
which obliged ns to take shelter under a banyan tree. The 
delay which this caused, and the length of the march pre- 
vented us from getting to Neemuch before evening. On 
arriving, we found that there was no dak-bungalow, so w^e 
hired a bungalow from a Parsee merchant, and rested there 
the next day. 

Neemuch is a station of the Company's troops, and looks 
exactly like all the stations that we had seen in the north of 
India. 

The native town is a small place, and belongs to Sindia, 
the Honourable Company owning only the ground actually 
within the limits of the cantonments. 

The bungalow which we occupied was in the next com- 
pound to the mess-house of one of the regiments. We took 
advantage of this to procure a good dinner from the mess- 
khausahma^z, a Bombay Parsee. He got us up a splendid meal, 
the best part of which was the English bread, which was the 
first (except what we had at Nusseerabad) that we had tasted 
since leaving Agra. We had been compelled to subsist on 
chupattees, a sort of pan-cake, made of flour (atta) and water, 
much used by natives as a substitute for bread. During the 
day one of the ofiicers of the place called, and was kind 
enough to enquire whether he could be of use, and to offer 
his services and those of the rest of the mess. 

We left Neemuch on the evening of February 4th, and 
found ourselves the next morning in a beautiful and highly 
cultivated country. After a short walk, we came to a mag- 
nificent banyan tree, which covered nearly two acres of 
ground. This was the finest tree I saw, though there ai-e 
many of them in that part of the country, and the baolees 
are often placed under their shade. These are very large and 
deep wells, the water in which is approached by a flight of 
steps. The water is used both for drinking, cooking, and irri- 
gation. When needed for the former purposes, each person 
must descend the steps and draw it in his own lota. The 
water for irrigation, however, is drawn up in a very large 



350 India. 

leather bucket. The power used is supplied by a pair of bul- 
locks and a single pulley. The rope which draws up the 
bucket (or as it might be better called, bag,) is so arranged as 
to empty the water when it arrives at the top of the well into 
the main channel, from which it is conveyed by a thousand 
ever-subdividing arteries to every part of the field. The 
whole method is as rude as possible, and much inferior to the 
" Persian wheel" used in Egypt, and the chain pumps which 
I saw in China; though I am doubtful whether the latter 
could be used where the water has to be raised to so great a 
height, as from these baolees. 

At about ten o'clock we arrived at Mundissoor, a large 
town on the banks of the Chumbul, which flows into the 
Jumna a hundred miles below Agra. Just outside the town 
we met the jumatdar, the highest police officer of the place. 
He was a very fine-looking and light-complexioned old man, 
handsomely dressed, and riding on a white horse, surrounded 
by eighteen or twenty chowkeedars. After an interchange of 
salutations, and a short conversation, he conducted us to a 
garden on the further bank of the river. We found there a 
stone pavilion, in which we took up our quarters, and the 
jumatdar soon sent us some provisions from the bazar. During 
the day the old man paid us another visit, bringing with him 
a very pretty boy, his grandson, who wished to pay his re- 
spects to the foreign gentlemen (Bulattee Sahib-I6g). 

The garden contained many large and fine trees, under the 
shade of which we passed the day, even more comfortably 
than in a dak-bungalow. The ford across the river presented 
a most lively scene. Men, women, and teams were constantly 
crossing in both directions, and throughout the day the water 
was filled with people, bathing and washing their clothes. 

On the further bank rose the city, upon a slight inclination, 
but although it contained several buildings that looked as if 
they might be worth seeing, the weather was so warm that 
we could not muster courage to leave the shade of the friendly 
trees. 

At seven o'clock in the evening, after an early dinner, we 
left for Jowra, distant twenty-eight miles, and arrived there at 



Maharatta Country. 3^1 

eight o'clock on the morning of February 6th. We put up in 
an empty bungalow, in a garden outside of the town. It be- 
longed to the Nawab, and was a rickety affair, appropriated to 
the temporary accommodation of Europeans. The day was 
too hot to allow us to think of walking to the town, which 
was distant more than a mile, but one of our number sent for 
bearers, and went thither in his palkee. On his return he re- 
ported it as not worth seeing. 

About eight in the evening we left Jowra, stopping, as we 
passed through the town, to have a moonlight view of the 
Kawab's Palace, or rather of his " English Palace," for the 
natives told us that he had eight in all, and kept one of his 
eight >vives in each. The " EngHsh Palace," which we saw, is 
an exact copy of an English country residence of the last cen- 
tury. 

The night's march was to Khachrdd, twenty-three miles. 
We awoke on Saturday morning just outside the town, and 
having passed through it, took up our quarters in a large top 
of fine mango trees, where we were much amused during the 
day by the boys from the town, who got up wrestling matches 
for our entertainment. 

Towards evening we walked into town, which had quite a 
different appearance from any that we had seen before, the 
architecture being that which distinguishes the south-western 
part of India. The houses were generally three stories high, 
and built with wooden frames, painted black, and filled in be- 
tween the frame-work with white-washed pukka. The houses 
in the bazar were built over the side-walk, and supported upon 
arches, forming arcades, similar to those in London and Paris. 
As we were walking through the streets about dusk, we met 
the Soobah, or Governor of this district, which forms part of 
Sindia's dominions. The Soobah was mounted on a splendidly 
caparisoned horse, and surrounded by a large retinue of cav- 



* Mahommedan princes are called Nawabs, the feminine of which is Be- 
goom. Rajah is a Hindoo title, the feminine being Ranee. The title Nawdb 
was corrupted by the English into Nabob, which is really the French spelling 
of the Oordoo "word. 



352 India. 

ally, armed footmen and torch-bearers. We took off our hats 
as he passed, and, in return for this civility, he sent six of his 
attendants after us, to deliver his salam, and see that we 
wanted nothing. On returning to our camp, we found six 
chokeedars, or armed policemen, keeping watch with spear 
and shield. They also had been sent by the Soobah. 

The next morning we breakfasted in a t6p of banyan-trees, 
on the banks of a little stream, just outside a small village. 
Leaving our palkees under the t6p, we crossed the stream on 
our bearer's shoulders, and went into the village to buy the 
materials for our breakfast. The place was a miserable collec- 
tion of mud hovels, but fortified by high and thick walls of 
earth. We could buy nothing but some coarse flour, ghee, 
and a little milk. However, with these materials our servant 
made some chupattees, and with a cup of coffee, and some 
fried slices of bacon, (which we had brought in tins from 
Agra), we made a hearty meal. 

After breakfast we marched on again through a country 
made beautiful by banyan-tops and fields of poppies in bloom, 
and, having fine baolees near the road side at short distances 
from each other. 

The whole march was forty-three miles. By dark we 
arrived at the branch of the Chumbul on which the city of 
Oojen is situated. This branch of the river is much larger 
than that which we saw at Mundissoor, and our dhoolees 
almost touched the water as they were carried over the ford. 
After crossing, we found a fine ghat, and, passing up a street 
bordered by large and substantial stone buildings, we entered 
the town, and traversing its streets for over a mile, j^assed out 
through a gate on the further side. The dak-bungalow is a 
mile from the town. We arrived there at eight in the eve- 
ning, having been over twenty hours on the march. We found 
the bungalow a large and fine one, with a Delhi Moosulman 
for khansahma?^, who got us up an excellent dinner. 

The next morning, on application to the Nana Sahib,* an 

* Kana SaTiib. This is not a name, but a title, or agnomen, meaning 
"the Lord Grandfather." Such titles are often assumed by natives of high 



Maharatta Couutry. 353 

elderly relation of Sindia, who governed this part of his do- 
minions, we obtained an elephant to view the city. Only one 
elephant was furnished us, the excuse being that all the others 
were at Gwalior, Sindia's capital. We afterwards found this 
to be a lie. The elephants were a great acquisition, as a walk 
of a mile to the town in the sun would have been rather a 
severe task. 

On the way to the town we passed a considerable sheet of 
water, upon the banks of which were several stone pavilions. 
The walls of the Oojen are of redstone — about forty feet high. 
The principal streets are broad, but rather winding. The 
houses upon them are large, several stories high, and built 
with frames of black wood like those of Khachrod. We were 
shown the outside of two palaces, belonging to a female rela- 
tive of Sindia, who was allowed by him to appropriate the 
revenues of this part of his territory. They were both large 
pukka buildings stuccoed on the exterior. The only sight 
which we visited was a large and fine white marble temple, 
dedicated to Kunaia. The door of the shrine was decorated 
with richly-worked silver plates, worth, we were told, some 
thousands of pounds. Within the portico of the temple was 
a car, all overlaid with silver plates. This, we were informed, 
was the carriage of the " Moort Bahadur," (his Highness, 
the Idol,) in which he took the air, on great festivals. 

We afterward rode on the elephant through the principal 
streets and bazars, and then returned to the dak-bungalow. 
This was all I saw of the city, but one of our party, who 
became disgusted with riding four on an elephant, got a horse 
from the Nana Sahib, and visited a fine palace and gardens 
upon the banks of a lake some miles from the town. 

During the afternoon we were much amused by a native 
puppet-show, representing a Durbar, or state-reception at the 

position, to prevent their real names becoming known to sorcerers, or evil 
disposed persons, who might use them in charms. "Chand Beebee," already 
spoken of, is an instance of this kind. These titles are not confined to the 
natives, but are often given to Europeans — for instance, Mr. Skinner at Delhi, 
was always called by the natives, "Sekundur Sahib," or, "the Lord Alexan- 
der" — Alexander being hia first name. 



354 India. 

Court of the Rajah of Jaipoor. The whole e;chibition was 
exceedingly well managed, and included a fight of wild ani- 
mals and some judicial proceedings. The latter were quite 
characteristic. An itenerant trader complains to an inferior 
officer of his goods having been stolen just outside the palace. 
This official promises him redress on condition that the recov- 
ered property shall be equally divided between them " ada 
mera, ada tera" — half mine, half thine — as he says. The un- 
fortunate man accepts these terms, but finds that he has to 
make a similar compromise with so many other officials, that 
when the money is actually recovered from the thief, the 
rightful owner gets little or nothing of it. The puppets were 
all well dressed, and had moveable arms and legs, which gave 
them a very natural appearance. They spoke in exactly the 
tone of " Punch,'^ and their conversation had all his wit. 

The city Oojen is, as I have said, one of the chief towns in 
Sindia's dominions. This Rajah is the most powerful of the 
Maharatta princes. The dominions of his ancestors extended 
over all Western and l^orthern India, including the greater 
part of what was once the empire of the Moguls. It was 
from them, and not from the Mahommedan emperor that the 
East India Company conquered the Empire of Hindoostan. 
The description, therefore, of the territory still subject to their 
rule, may not be uninteresting, as it will show not only what 
is the practical working of a native government, but also what 
would have been the condition of the most fertile provinces 
of India, if they were not protected by the power of the 
English. In the description, I have borrowed largely the lan- 
guage of Colonel Sleeman, not only because he was one of the 
best-informed men in India, but also because, from the nature 
of his family relations, and from the intimacy in which he 
lived with natives of all ranks, he will be allowed not only to 
have been an unbiassed observer, but even to have been in some 
respects prejudiced in favour of native rulers and native 
society. 

The Maharatta princes were robbers by profession and by 
caste. They conquered the countries which they governed, 
and ruled them as robbers might be expected to do. They 



Maharatta Country. 3_jj; 

never made a pretence of protecting the lives and property of 
their subjects — the whole administration consisting of revenue- 
officers, whose duty was to squeeze out of the inhabitants 
every farthing that could be obtained. 

Kobbing, is, in India, a regular profession. It is also here- 
ditary. A man is born a robber, just as he is born a Brahmun. 
It is a caste recognised by the constitution of Indian society, 
and having its place in the religious system and its tutelary 
deities in the Hindoo Pantheon. All robbers take the field in 
the month of November, whether they are sovereigns of great 
states, or leaders of little bands from an obscure village. They 
all invoke the protection of Heaven, and take the auspices in the 
same way — asking and expecting the protection of the Deity, 
with as much confidence as those who are engaged in any 
other occupation. ISTor is the robber regarded as less respec- 
table than the soldier by the circle in which he lives, provided 
he spends his income as liberally, and discharges his social du- 
ties as well, and this he generally does to secure the good-will 
of his neighbours, whatever may be his depredations upon other 
and distant communities. In any other part Of the world 
such a state of things would be impossible ; but in India, 
under the weak and disorganized native governments, the 
system had spread to an incredible extent. There was scarcely 
a village that was not yearly subject to an incursion of one of 
the bands of plunderers. If they were weak, they prevented 
the interference of the authorities by dividing with them the 
spoils ; if they were strong they overrode the governments 
and became territorial conquerors. 

Of the latter class were the Maharatta princes. Every year 
they set out with their armies to rob and plunder the territo- 
ries of their neighbours. Every year saw their territories 
broader than the last, until, in 1760, their frontier on the north 
extended to the Indus and Himalayas, and on the south nearly 
to the extremity of the Indian Peninsula. They had a large 
and well-trained army, officered to a great extent by Euro- 
peans. When the English conquest began, this vast extent of 
country was groaning beneath their intolerable yoke. The 
Emperor of Delhjl was a prisoner in their hands, with an allow- 



356 India. 

ance so penurious that he and his family were in want of the 
absolute necessaries of life. The wretched inhabitants of these 
countries were subjected to organized and unsparing extor- 
tion, compared with which the exactions of their Moosulman 
rulers were just and liberal. The government cannot be said 
to have been oppressive, for there was really no government 
at all except the revenue administration. No pretence of ad- 
ministering justice was made. The country was left in a State 
of the most complete anarchy, and, beside all the disorders 
that naturally attend such a condition, the feuds of small 
princes, and the unrestrained excesses of lawless classes, they 
were subjected to periodical invasions of another robber nation, 
the Pindarrees, who only differed from the Maharattas in being 
even more ruthless and unsparing ; since, as they did not aim 
at territorial acquisition, it was not worth their while to leave 
a "nest egg,^^ and, accordingly, they carried off whatever they 
could, and destroyed and burnt up what was not portable. 

These hordes of robbers were overcome by the Enghsh, and 
confined within the hmits of their early possessions in Central 
India, Here for many years they chafed in impatient restric- 
tion, losing no opportunity for a quarrel which promised to 
unite them all in an effort to shake off the paramount influence 
of the English. They felt and still feel that they could easily 
extend their depredations if that power was withdrawn ; and 
they know no other road to wealth and glory "but such suc- 
cessful depredations. Their ancestors rose by them, their 
states were formed by them, and their armies were main- 
tained by them. They look back upon them for all that seems 
honourable in the history of their families. Their bards sing 
of them in all their marriage and funeral processions ; and, as 
their imaginations kindle at the recollection, they detest the 
arm that is extended to defend the wealth and industry of 
surrounding territories from their grasp. As the industrious 
classes acquire and display their wealth in the territories 
around, during a long peace, and under the protection of a 
strong and settled government, these native chiefs, with their 
little disorderly armies, feel precisely as an English country 
gentleman would feel with a pack of fox hounds in a country 



Maharatta Country. 3_J7 

swarming with foxes, if he were denied the privilege of hunt- 
ing them. 

In 1835, Colonel Sleeman paid a visit to Gwalior. He found 
the road a mere footpath, unimproved and unadorned ; and, 
except the path, and a small police station, there was abso- 
lutely no sign to indicate the dominion or even the presence 
of man. And yet it was the highroad between two capitals, 
scarcely a hundred miles apart, one occupied by one of the 
most ancient, and the other by one of the most powerful na- 
tive sovereigns of India. The cultivation was every where 
wretched. Scarcely a tree was to be seen, as all were swept 
away to be made into gun-carriages — a proceeding which 
showed a most philosophical disregard of the comforts of the 
living, the rejjose of the dead (who planted them with a view 
to a comfortable berth in the next world), and the will of the 
gods to whom they were dedicated. There was nothing left 
upon the land of animal or vegetable life to animate or enrich 
it. The cultivation was of the sort that looks to one crop for 
its entire return. There were no manufactures, no trade or 
commerce, save the transport of the rude produce of the land 
upon the backs of bullocks, for want of even a cart-road. No 
one lived in the villages but those whose labour was absolutely 
necessary to the rudest tillage. 

The colonel met twelve men wounded and bleeding. They 
told him that they had just been robbed outside the town near 
which they were. They had at once applied to the native 
governor. His answer was characteristic. " Look after your 
own affairs," said he. " Am I here to take care of merchants 
and travellers, or to collect the revenues of the Prince ?" 
Upon this the colonel remarks, " l!^either he, nor the prince 
himself, nor any other public officer, ever dreamed that it was 
their duty to protect the life, property, or character of travel- 
lers, or indeed of any other human beings, save the members 
of then* own families. In this pithy answer was described the 
nature and character of the government. All the revenues of 
Sindia's immense dominions are spent entirely in the main- 
tenance of the court and camp of the prince ; and every officer 
considers his duties to be limited to the collection of the rev- 



358 India. 

enue. Protected from all external enemies by our forces, 
which surround him on every side, his whole army is left to 
him for purposes of parade and display ; and having, accor- 
ding to his notions, no use for them elsewhere, he concentrates 
them around his capital, where he lives among them in the 
j)erpetual dread of mutiny and assassination.* He has no- 
where any police, or any establfshment for the protection of 
the life and property of his subjects. As a citizen of the world 
I could not help thinking that it would be an immense bless- 
ing to a large portion of our species if an earthquake were to 
swallow up this court of Gwalior and the army that surrounds 
it. Nothing worse could possibly succeed ; and something 
better might. 

" The misrule of such states, situated in the midst of our 
dominions, is not without its use. There is, as Gibbon ob- 
serves, ' a strong propensity in human nature to deprecate the 
advantages, and magnify the evil of present times ;' and if the 
people had not before their eyes such specimens of native rule 
to contrast with ours, they would think more highly than they 
do of their past Mahommedan and Hindoo sovereigns, and be 
much less disposed than they are fairly to estimate the advan- 
tages of being under our government. The native govern- 
ments of the present day are fair specimens of what they have 
always been — grinding military despotisms ; and their whole 
history is that of * Saul who killed his thousands, and David 
his tens of thousands,' as if rulers were made only to slay, and 
the ruled to be slain. In politics, as in landscape, * 'Tis distance 
lends enchantment to the view,' and the past might be all 
couleuT de rose in the imagination of the people, were it not 
reproduced in these ill-governed states, where the ' lucky acci- 
dent' of a good governor is not to be expected in a century, 
and where the secret of the responsibility of ministers to the 
people has not yet been discovered." 

Since this description was written the administration of 
government has somewhat improved under the influence of 

* Another traveller, who saw the Rajah of Gwalior at a nach, describes him 
as sitting with a drawn sword in one hand and a naked dagger in the other. 



Maharatta Country. ^^g 

the English Residents ; but in many of its features the picture 
is true even to the present day. Wherever there has been 
improvement it has been wholly through British influence, and 
this vivid sketch of a native government, without that influ- 
ence, enables us to reahze the condition in which India would 
be at the present day if it had never been conquered by the 
English ; and the state into which it would at once relapse were 
their supremacy withdrawn. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

TO ELLOEA. 

March of Sir E. Hamilton— Indor— The Eajah's Palace— Strike into the Mail-road— Ee- 
yolt of Kuhars — Cavalcade — Origin of the present Eajah — Mhow — Goojree — ^Kur- 
rumpoora — A Stray "White Man — Manners of Natives — Sindwar — Fortress in Euins 
— Sirpoorah — Peculiar Police Eegulation — Old Venetian Coins — Enter the British 
Dominions — Dhoolia — Native Town — Evidences of having entered British Territory 
— Malligaum— Cantonments— Native Town — The Fort— Parallel Defences— Nand- 
ga,on — Camp in a Grove — Sakigaoji — Put up in a Temple — Enter the Dekkun — Phy- 
sical Geography — The Nizam — " Might makes Eight." 

We left Oojen on the evening of February 9th, for Indor, 
distant thirty-eight miles. The next morning we breakfasted 
by the roadside, just outside a village, where were pitched the 
tents of Sir R. Hamilton, the Resident at Indor, who was 
marching from that place to Mehidpoor. During the break- 
fast, parties of soldiers ; ladies and gentlemen on horseback, in 
carriages, or in shigrams ; elephants, camels, and hackurees 
belonging to his train, were constantly coming in ; and all day 
long we were passing people belonging to the camp, on foot, 
or variously mounted. 

Marching is a most delightful mode of travelling. You go 
into tents, taking with you all your furniture and attendants, 
and in this way may travel any distance with all the comforts 
of home. The march, which is generally from twelve to 
eighteen miles, is made in the early morning, on horseback, or 
in a carriage. On arriving at the camping-ground, you find a 
breakfast-tent already pitched, and breakfast ready. During 
the discussion of the meal, the large tents and attendants come 
up, and a most comfortable home for the day is arranged in 
an inconceivably short time. 

Indor is a large town strongly walled, and the residence of 
Holkar, one of the great Maharatta princes. The Rajah's 



To Ellora. 361 

palace fronts on an open square, in which we found a great 
mela, or fair, going on. The j^alace is over three hundred 
feet square, and six stories high. Its style of architecture is 
impure Saracenic. Within, there is a court surrounded by 
tall pillars of black wood. We were not admitted into the in- 
terior of the palace. 

The town seemed thriving, and the streets were filled with 
people. The houses were generally high, and built with 
frames of dark wood. 

At Indor, we struck the mail-road between Agra and Bom- 
bay, and consequently got along much more easily, as our 
bearers could do the same distance in shorter time, and the 
bungalows were at regular intervals on the road. All the 
way from Agra we had hardly seen anything better than a 
mere wagon track, and for part of the way there was not 
even that. Most of the merchandize we saw on the road 
was being conveyed on the backs of bullocks, of which we 
sometimes met droves of five or six hundred. After leaving 
Indor, we used to see the mail-cart every day, which reminded 
us that we Avere not entirely out of the reach of civilization ; 
but in the country in which we had been, the only mails were 
those for the few places in which English ofiicers were sta- 
tioned, and they were easily carried by a running hurkaru, 
or postman. 

We were detained a day at Indor, by a revolt of our ku- 
hars, who refused to go on, unless they were paid some 
demands for demurrage. We were finally obliged to call in 
the aid of the law, in the shape of a police jumatdar, who read 
them the ekranama, or Persian agreement which they had 
signed before leaving Agra ; and soon brought them to rea- 
son by threatening them with imprisonment in case of non- 
compliance with our requisitions. These men had been dis- 
satisfied for a long time, but were too wise to make a com- 
plaint in the native territories through which we had been 
passing, knowing, as they did, that however right they might 
be, they would stand no chance of justice from a native judge. 
They chose Indor as the scene of the revolt, because they 
expected that the case would come before Sir R. Hamilton, or 

16 



362 India. 

an English magistrate. Luckily, however, they were alJ 
absent, and the jumatdar arranged matters, without giving us 
any trouble, for the small reward of two rui^ees. He even 
promised to have some of the mutineers flogged, if we liked. 

On one of our walks to the town, we met a long cavalcade 
of chobdars, (men with silver maces,) couriers, native cavalry, 
and sepoys ; the latter of whom wore the Rajah's uniform of 
dark green, made in the English fashion. They were escort- 
ing one of the Rajah's young relations, (I believe a brother,) 
who had been visiting a garden near the city. He was a 
little boy, not over eight years of age, very splendidly dressed, 
and riding a large white horse, richly caparisoned. The Ra- 
jah himself was quite young, and was originally a poor shep- 
herd boy. On the death of the last Rajah, without descen- 
dants, the Company might easily have annexed his territories, 
but instead of doing so, they at last discovered this distant 
relative, and raised him from his humble position to a seat on 
the Musnud. 

We left Indor on the 1 2th of February for Mhow, distant 
thirteen miles, which is a station of the Honourable Company's 
troops. From Mhow we marched the next day to Goojree — 
twenty-seven miles — arriving there on the 14th. The follow- 
ing day's march was to Kurrumpoora, twenty-five miles. On 
the way, we crossed the famous and sacred river Kurbudda ; 
but we did not see much of it, as it was three o'clock in the 
morning when we reached it, and the night was very dark. 
We had now left the great plain of I^orthern India, the 
waters of which flow into the Ganges. Even at Indor there 
is a branch of the Chumbul which eventually flows into that 
great stream. But after leaving Mhow, the slope of the coun- 
try was to the westward, and the road descended to the coast 
over successive plateaux, separated by ridges of hills, high to 
the westward, but low to the eastward. 

Kurrumpoora is situated in a barren and hilly country ; the 
village is small, and composed of mud huts, but contains a 
fine large sural, or open court for the accommodation of tra- 
vellers. It is built at the foot of a low, but steep hill, on the 
top of which is the dak-bungalow. During the day, as we 



To Ellora. 363 

were sitting talking within the bungalow, one of our servants 
announced that the jumatdar of the village craved an audience. 
He was accordingly admitted, and after profuse salams, and a 
great deal of circumlocution, informed us that he had caught 
a stray " gora," and had come to ask what he should do with 
him. We supposed he meant " ghora" — a horse ; and were 
surprised that he should find any difficulty in disposing of the 
animal, if it had come into his possession. He said his men 
had caught it wandering about the country, a week before ; 
that since that time he had kept it in a cage, and was now de- 
sirous of getting rid of it, as he found its feeding expensive. 
Finally, we told him to bring it up for our inspection. In a 
few minutes he returned, followed by a crowd of nearly naked 
blacks, with swords and spears, surrounding a white man. 
The mystery was now all explained, and we recollected that 
" gora" is the native word for a white man, a term, however, 
scarcely ever heard, as it is not applied to any person of re- 
spectability, who is always called sahib — a lord. The " gora" 
proved to be a poor German sailor, who had a relation at 
Agra, and had started to walk from Bombay to that place. 
He was very pale and thin, and said that he had been treated 
hardly by the natives, all the way up. He could not speak a 
word of English, or any native, language, and might have re- 
mained a month in the cage if the jumatdar had not luckily 
thought of applying to us. His feeding, he said, could not 
have cost much, as they gave him only coarse bread, and 
short rations of that. We recommended him to turn back, as 
he was likely to receive even worse treatment further up the 
country ; but as he persisted in his original design, we sup- 
plied him with some funds, and dismissed him and his late 
jailors. This little anecdote, although uninteresting in itself, 
shows the light in which a poor white man is looked upon by 
natives, and the amount of consideration and kindness which 
he may expect. They regard such persons, in fact, very much 
as the blacks of the Southern States do the " poor whitefolk." 
We had frequently experienced the same thing ourselves, 
when we had walked far ahead of our bearers. The natives 
know that the consideration which they will receive depends 



364 India. 

entirely on their rank, and therefore surround themselves on 
all occasions with all the evidences of their position. All who 
can afford it go on horseback, and if possible, have with them 
at least one follower, and as many more as they can command. 
We, of course, did not mind such fictitious honours, and 
therefore used often to walk some distance ahead of our train, 
clad, frequently, in merely a shirt and trowsers. The puzzled 
or insolent demeanour of those whom we met only amused us, 
but, at the same time, we saw enough to show that a pedes- 
trian tour through India would not be the most agreeable 
way of seeing the country, although it might give an accurate 
knowledge of the real character of the inhabitants. 

The next day's march was thirty miles to Sindwar. The 
bungalow was unfit for a stable, and showed clearly that we 
had left the limits of Bengal influence. The village was a 
miserable huddle of mud huts, but near it was a large stone 
fortress on the plain. It is now in ruins, but contains the 
remains of a fine palace and tank, and must once have been a 
place of considerable strength and importance. 

From Sindwar we marched thirty miles to Sirporah, where 
we arrived on the morning of February 17th. In Sirporah 
bungalow we fell in with the first traveller that we had seen 
since leaving Agra. He proved to be Lieutenant Black of the 
Bombay service, who was going by mail-cart to Bombay from 
Agra. He had held a civil appointment in Oude, and was 
well acquainted with Captain Hayes of Lucknow, and some 
others whom I had known there. We invited him to join 
our breakfast, and found his company and conversation very 
pleasant, as he was almost the first Englishman that we had 
spoken to since leaving Agra. After breakfast, we saw Lieu- 
tenant Black off; and in the afternoon we walked into the 
village, which is of large size, but exclusively composed of 
mud huts, and surrounded by a mud wall. 

Outside the town were a number of baskets, about six feet 
long and three feet high. Each stood on a little raised plat- 
form of earth, and was sheltered by a thatched roof. One 
end was open and used as an entrance, but could be closed by 
a frame of basket-work which fitted into the aperture. We, 



To EUora. 365 

lit first, could not understand the use of these remarkable 
structures, but discovered that they were the residences of 
certain women, who, in this part of India, are not allowed to 
enter the villages. The specimens which we saw were dressed 
in gaudy cotton, and were by no means seductive in appear- 
ance. One part of their ornamentation, however, was curious, 
and, indeed, inexplicable to us. They were strings of old 
European gold and silver coins, which they wore suspended 
from their ears and noses. The women said the coins were 
not really gold, but were copied from real coins by the soonar 
(goldsmith). How he got hold of the originals I cannot 
imagine, unless they were relics of the Indian trade carried 
on in ancient times by the Venetians. 

Sirporah is in the Bombay Presidency, and we were now 
again fairly in the British possessions, within which we con- 
tinued for the next 130 miles. 

From Sirporah Ave went to Dhoolia, thirty-two miles. The 
next morning we awoke on a great barren plain; and, after 
walking a few miles, descended a ghat (step), as these hills 
are called, and found the town of Dhoolia in the valley below. 

In the afternoon we walked through the station, where 
there were then no troops, but the bungalows of a few Euro- 
pean ofiicials. The native town is of some size, and apparently 
a place of considerable activity. There were no walls or 
other defences : a peculiarity which was alone sufficient to 
show that we had now left the territories of native princes. 

Dhoolia contains a large jail,* the convicts in which are 
employed in the manufacture of cotton goods. The bridge, 
over a tributary of the Taptee, is a very fine structure, high, 
long, and substantially built. It was another evidence that 
we had passed the limits of native rule. 

As we walked into the town we met troops of boys, return- 
ing from one of the Company's schools. Like the other 
inhabitants of the place they Avore the extraordinary head- 
dresses peculiar to the Bombay Presidency. They are im- 

* Jails are institutions unknown to the native governments of India. The 
punishments prescribed by the Koran and Hindoo codes are fines, floggmg, 
the bastinado, mutilation, or death in various forms. 



366 India. 

mense turbans, of various rich colours and grotesque shapes — 
the particular form being determined by the nationality or 
caste of the wearer. As much as fifteen yards of heavy 
muslin are often employed in their formation — rather a for- 
midable burden for the head of a boy of eight or ten. In the 
north of India the turbans are small, and consist of about ten 
or twelve yards of fine and narrow muslin, which the wearer 
winds round his head each morning afresh, and mil often re- 
arrange during the day. But the turban of Bombay is so 
comj)licated a structure that it has to be made up by a pro- 
fessor of the art, and when once formed is not unwound for 
a month or more. 

We left Dhoolia on the evening of the 1 8th, and the next 
morning arrived at Malligaum, thirty-two miles distant. Like 
Dhoolia it is situated in a plain at the foot of a hill. The 
country around is quite barren and jungly, as was all that we 
saw after leaving Indor. However, we really did not see 
much of it, as the road was so excellent after entering the 
Bombay Presidency that our bearers completed each night's 
march, before we awoke. 

Before arriving at the dak-bungalow we had to cross a 
long and fine stone bridge, even larger than that at Sirporah, 
and, like it, of English shape and construction. From the 
bridge the native town and its castle were visible, a short 
distance dowTi the river. 

Malligaum is a considerable station. We walked through 
the cantonments, and listened to the band, which, like aU the 
other bands of the Bombay army that I heard, was far inferior 
to those in the Bengal service, where they were carefully trained 
under European band-masters. The cantonments' chm*ch was 
very pretty, being a neat edifice of rough hewn grey stone, in 
the early pointed style — showing far more taste and knowl- 
ege of ecclesiastical architecture than most of the chapels in 
India, in which, indeed, those quaUties could hardly have been 
expected, as they were mostly designed and built by the 
Company's engineer officers. 

We also visited the native town, which, although a consider- 
able place, had no walls. The only object of interest was the 



To Ellora. 367 

fort, biiilt at a bend of the river. It was once a place of some 
strength, but is now in ruins. The defences consist of three 
parallel walls, one within the other, an arrangement rarely 
seen in India. The walls are of grey stone, at least fifteen feet 
thick. We found the fort entirely deserted, except that in 
one of the courts there was an encampment of Bheel troops. 

Since entering the Bombay Presidency we had had an 
excellent road and good bungalows, but we were now again 
to leave these comforts and strike off from the direct Bombay 
road, in order to visit the caves of Ellora which are in the 
Nizam's dominions, about sixty miles from Malligamn. 

Leaving Malligaum on the 20th of February, we found our- 
selves next morning on a villainous cross-country road. The 
country was hilly and very rugged, in some places covered 
with bushes or trees. Before arriving at N"andgao/^* we saw 
several wild hogs in the jungul. 

The village of Nandgao^i is built upon the banks of a little 
stream, and the country for some distance around it was well 
cultivated. Crossing the stream, we found what they called 
a " bagheechi" — a fine grove of tall trees, under the shade of 
which we passed the day very comfortably. 

The next morning we awoke near a small village, in a very 
barren country. As there was not a tree or any other shelter 
to be seen, we had to push on to a somewhat larger and mud- 
walled village called Sakigao?i, twenty-four miles from Nand- 
gn.071. At this place, also, there were but few trees, but out- 
side the gate we found a mud temple, dedicated to Gunesi 
and Hooniman — the Elephant and Ape gods. In this we 
took up our quarters for the day. The idols were rude and 
hideous representations of these two animals. During the 
day we were several times disturbed by the priests' coming in 
to paint them, and to make poojah, which consisted in walk- 
ing many times round the idol, and pouring over it the sacred 
water of the ISTurbudda ; at the same time bowing and touch- 

* Nandgao?^. — The final syllable in this word, gaow, moans a village, and 
is the same as the last syllable of Malligaum, the spelling of which is corrupt. 
It should be Maligaow, meaning "The gardener's village." 



368 India. 

ing their foreheads with their hands joined in the attitude of 
prayer. 

Between Israndgao?2 and Sakigaon we had crossed the range 
of hills which divides the valleys of the Taptee and Godaveri. 
IsTorth of the hills all the waters flow westwardly, but the 
country in which we now were is drained by the Godaveri 
and Kistna, rivers that empty into the Bay of Bengal. We 
were now, therefore, fairly in the Dekkun, a term that is by 
some confined to those parts of the Indian Peninsula which 
are south of the Nurbudda valley and drained by eastward- 
flowing rivers, but which, as generally used, includes all the 
country south of the Yindya chain. 

We had also entered the territories of another native prince, 
the Nizam, as he is styled. His capital is Hydurabad, and his 
dominions are almost four times as large as was the kingdom 
of Oude, or three times as large as Ireland, with twice its 
population. The founder of this dynasty was a Soobahdar, or 
governor, imder the Mogul Emperor. During the distur- 
bances that accompanied the decay of the Delhi empire, he 
asserted his independence, which was afterwards recognised 
and confirmed by the English. Unfortunately, there is no 
treaty which gives the English the power of interfering in the 
internal management of the Nizam's territories, and although 
a Resident is stationed at the capital he can do little but 
remonstrate whenever an act of more than usual folly or 
oppression occurs. The country is therefore misgoverned, 
Right and Justice are set at naught, the power of the Nizam 
is in many places defied, the whole country is a nest of rob- 
bers and a secm-e resort for Thugs, and the Company's officials 
can do nothing to remedy this state of things; what is worse, 
they are compelled by their treaty obligations to sustain the 
corrupt and powerless government, the inefficiency of which 
occasions all this disorder, and which, without their support, 
would soon be supplanted. 

During the day that we remained at Sakigao?^ our kuhars 
went into the village to buy materials for their food. When 
they came out again they were followed by the village buni- 
ahs, who with many tears and gToans declared that the bear- 



To Ellora. ^69 

ers had not hall' paid for the food which they had taken. This 
accusation was rendered only too probable by their whole 
conduct since leaving Agra, and on investigation we dis- 
covered it to be true, and compelled them to pay the whole 
value of the flour. In this case, therefore, the unfortunate 
villagers were righted, but we had good reason to believe 
that such occurrences often took place without our knowledge, 
and that those who were imposed on hesitated to complain for 
fear that we should side with our followers, in which case the 
latter would be sure to take revenge. 

This was another instance of that " Zubburdustee" — the law 
of " Might makes Right" — which is so universally recognised 
in India. He who has the power takes, and he who is wronged 
gives up without question. Rarely is complaint made to the 
officers of justice, who, even in the Company's territories,* are 
looked upon with fear and distrust. In fact a native regards 
a resort to the courts and police very much as we do the con- 
duct of the doves in the old fable, who called upon the hawk 
to defend them from the kite, and were subsequently eaten up 
by their champion. 

* It will be remembered that the officials of the Honourable Company's 
poUce, and their judges in the courts of first resort, are all natives, who, fi-om 
the very shght supervision that can be exercised over them by their European 
superiors, are scarcely less venal and tyrannous than in native states. 

16* 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

THE CAVE TEMPLES OF ELLORA. 

General Description of the Temples — Khailas — Fine Sculptures — " The Work of Gods or 
Devils ?"— Other Caves— A Heavenly Carpenter — A Disorderly Household— View 
from Hill — Saint's Tomb — Eoza — Aurungzeeb's Tomb — His Character — Splendour 
and Power — Decay of the Mogul Empire — A Night in Paradise — Indra Sabha — 
Sonorous Obelisks — The Doorma Lena — Architectural Ornaments of the Caves — 
Hindoo Keligious Mendicants — Peasantry — Their Complexions. 

On the morning of February 23, we arrived at the caA^es of 
Ellora, which are fourteen miles from Sakigao^z. They are 
the most perfect, and best known of the rock temples which 
abomid in this part of India, and it was therefore with no 
little interest that we got out of our palkees and began to 
explore them. The caves are hoUowed out of the rock, at 
the foot of a ghat, or range of hills, which rise steeply from 
the plain to the height of six hundred feet. Their name, 
Ellora, is a corruption of Weroola, the name of a small village 
about a mUe distant. The caves extend for three miles along: 
the foot of the hill. They are of various ages, the most 
northern, and the southern caves being of Boodhist origin, 
while those in the middle are Brahmunical, and about nine 
hundred years old, or even less. 

We first visited the cave called Khailas, or Paradise, which, 
although one of the most modern, is at once the largest and 
most elaborate of the series. It is a quarry-fike excavation — 
of which the depth is 250 feet, and the breadth 133 feet. 
There is a wall of solid rock, separating the enclosure from 
the plain. The interior of the quarry is occupied in the centre 
by the temple. This is of the usual form, consisting of the 
shrine with its pyramidal dome, and several piUared porticoes 
and halls. The sides of the quarry are steep, and hollowed 



The Cave Temples of EUora. 371 

out into successive stories of halls and galleries, into wMcb 
light is admitted by open colonnades. All these buildings, 
the great temple, its porticoes and galleries, as well as the 
other apartments and the massive wall which divides the 
whole from the valley, are carved and quarried out of the 
solid rock. 

The temple is about eighty-five feet high to the top of the 
pyramidal spire over the shrine. Its length, including the 
porticoes which are connected with it by hanging galleries of 
stone, is not less than 150 feet, and the greatest breadth is 
about ninety feet. The largest apartment is sixty-six feet by 
fifty-five. Its ceiling, which is supported by heavy square 
columns, is not more than twelve feet high, and carved to 
represent rafters. At the end of this apartment is a low door, 
opening into the shrine, which is a small and dark room, con- 
taining only a gigantic Mahadeo, four feet high. The columns 
and walls of the apartment were most elaborately carved, as 
was also the whole exterior of the building, the designs of 
which represent the exploits of Ram in Lunka or Ceylon, 
where, with the assistance of the monkey-god Hooniman, and 
his army of apes, he delivered his wife Seeta from the cap- 
tivity of a demon. The chambers and galleries in the sides 
of the quarry were similarly decorated. Sometimes the de- 
vices are uncouth, as is the case in one of the apartments, the 
roof of which is supported by huge stone lions and elephants 
fighting with each other. In the enclosure between the tem- 
ple and the gateway are two obelisks, seventy-five or eighty 
feet high, supported on the backs of elephants. Like all the 
other buildings and accessories, they are carved from the 
solid rock. On coming out we met two Hindoo devotees, or 
Sooniasees, and asked them who had built the temple. " How 
do I know," one of them replied, " whether it was a god or a 
devil ?" — implying that it was beyond the power of men. 

After seeing the Khailas, we paid a hurried visit to the caves 
which lie to the south of it. They are mostly square apart- 
ments, about a hundred feet deep, cut into the steep face of 
the chfl", and approached by a terrace running along the hill- 
side. The roofs were generally twelve or fifteen feet high, 



372 India. 

and supported by many solid columns. Some were approached 
from court-yards, excavated in the hill-sides, and others con- 
sisted of several separate apartments, joined by corridors. 
There was, however, a great uniformity of design, the most 
remarkable exception being a cave known as the " Carpenter's 
Cabin," which is not open in front hke the others, but has 
only a small door for entrance. The interior is oblong in 
form, about fifty feet long and twenty-five broad. The end 
opposite the door is apsidal, and the roof is ribbed, and pointed 
with a perfect Gothic arch. Altogether, it would do remark- 
ably well for a Christian church. This cave is singularly plain, 
the only figure of any kind being the colossal statue of the 
"Carpenter," or architect, as the word maistree would be 
better translated. This statue is situated in the apse, and 
represents the maistree as sitting cross-legged, with one hand 
on each knee. The natives told us that he was a son of 
Seewa — that he excavated all these caves, and finally died 
from a cut in the finger, wounded by an ill-directed blow of 
the chisel. In fact, one of his hands was represented in the 
statue as bleeding. This must have been a late legend, as this 
cave, and the others near it, are of Boodhist construction. 

We now ascended the ghat, which proved a hot and fa- 
tiguing business, as it was nearly eleven o'clock and we had had 
no breakfast. On the top of the hill we came upon a broad plain, 
upon which there were several large stone tombs of Moosul- 
man architecture. One of these, we found, was used as a bun- 
galow by the officers of the Aurungabad mess, and was com- 
pletely fitted up with a table, chairs, and cotton carpet. Here 
we ventured to take up our quarters, and wrote off to the 
commandant of Aurungabad for permission to remain all 
night. Opposite the tomb was a bungalow belonging to a 
retired English officer, who was a hundred years old, the na- 
tives said. He sent us over some mutton and vegetables, and 
offered to assist us in any way in his power. We thanked 
him for his kindness, in a note, and asked leave to call upon 
him ; from this, however, he excused himself on the ground 
of illness and the fatigue of dressing. However, we found 
out afterwards that the real reason for objecting to our visit, 



The Cave Temples of EUora. ono. 

was that the old gentleman's house was all zenana, and over- 
run with old and new favourites, whose number, as we were 
told by the bungalow-kbansahma?z, was " beyond account." 

The heat was so great that we remained indoors nearly 
all day. Towards evening we ascended the hill behind the 
tomb, from the top of which we got an extensive vicAv. In 
the valley below us was the town of Roza, almost buried in 
trees. In the distance rose a steep mountain, crowned with 
the fortress of Dowlutabad. On the right, in the valley, was 
the pretty village of Weroola, and behind us was the table- 
land upon which was situated the tomb where we had passed 
the day, and several others which we visited on descending 
from the hill. 

One of these was quite an elaborate structure, in a fine court, 
surrounded by splendid trees. It is the burial place of a dis- 
ciple of Nizam ood Deen, a saint whose tomb I saw at Delhi. 
The mausoleum of the disciple was larger than that of his 
master, if not so handsome, and the number of pilgrims en- 
camped under the shade of the trees seemed quite considerable. 

After seeing these mausoleums we walked on to the city of 
Roza, a walled town built byAurungzeeb during his residence 
in the Dekkun. The architecture of the buildings, therefore, 
and general appearance of the town, precisely resemble those 
of the cities built by the Mahommedans in Northern India. 
Here, for the first time since leaving Jaipoor, we saw the 
minars of a musjeed. 

Roza, though well fortified and when first built doubtless a 
pretty city, has now a most decayed look. Many of the 
buildings are quite unoccupied, and the stuccoed exteriors of 
all were black with dirt and mould. The population are 
nearly all Moosulmans, and have a most shabby appearance. 
The fact is that this city, like many other towns in India, was 
built to satisfy the whim of a tyrant, who ordered the build- 
ing of a city without regard to anything but his own pleasure, 
and when it was built transplanted inhabitants into it by 
force. 

The principal sight of Roza, the name of which signifies a 
tomb, is the grave of the Emperor Aurungzeeb. It is covered 



374 India. 

only with a white marble slab, which is protected by a canopy 
of wood. A cloth of white silk, strewn with fresh flowers, 
was spread over the grave — a usual mark of respect shown to 
the graves of all Mahommedans who have left a fund to pay 
for it. The plainness and simplicity of the Emperor's grave 
contrasted very much with the elaborate splendour of several 
marble mausoleums which were contained within the same 
court. The moollahs in charge told us that the tomb had 
been prepared, in accordance with his own directions, before 
he died, which is quite possible, as he was rather given to as- 
ceticism. 

Here, then, lie the remains of Aurungzeeb, the third in de- 
scent from Akbur, and the last, as Akbur was the first of the 
great Emperors of Hindoostan. He ruled an empire of immense 
extent, which had never been well consolidated, and which, 
during his reign, was distracted by formidable rebellions in 
various directions, some of them even led by his own sons ; 
and yet he not only j)reserved in great measure the integrity 
of his dominions, but he even ventured to enforce upon the 
Hindoos odious taxes, prescribed by the Koran indeed, but 
which none of his ancestors had dared to maintain. He set at 
naught the rehgious prejudices of the great body of his subjects ; 
forbade the public celebration of Hindoo festivals ; demolished 
temples and built mosques where they had stood, and refused 
to admit Hindoos to any government situation of honour and 
responsibihty. His zeal for religion was shown not only by 
these acts, but by the simplicity of his dress, the abstemious- 
ness of his diet, and his habit of constantly perusing and ex- 
pounding the Koran. At the same time his religion never 
interfered with measures of state. He made his way to the 
throne by deposing and imprisoning his father, and putting to 
death his three brothers and all their sons, and during his 
whole reign no scruples prevented the perpetration of any 
crime that was requisite for the gratification of his ambition. 

Although abstemious in his private life, the splendours of his 
court and camp almost exceed behef. His army was composed 
of thousands of cavalry, infantry and artillery, the soldiers of 
which were drawn not only from all the provinces of his vast 



The Cave Temples of Ellora. 375 

emj^ire, but from other Asiatic countries, and even to same ex 
tent from Europe. A long train of war elephants, and a numer- 
ous stud of magnificently-caparisoned horses, for the Emperor's 
use, always accompanied his camp. A menagerie, also, was 
taken wherever he went, from which the rarest animals in the 
world were frequently brought forth and exhibited by their 
keej^ers before the Emj)eror and his court ; while hawks, 
hounds, hunting-tigers, trained elephants, and eveiy accompani- 
ment used for field sports, swelled the j^omp of the prodigious 
retinue. 

The walls of cloth which encompassed the royal tents 
formed a circumference of twelve hundred yards, and con- 
tained every species of apartment found in the most spacious 
palace. There were halls of audience for public assemblies and 
private councils, with all the courts and cabinets attached to 
them, each hall magnificently adorned, and having in it a raised 
seat or throne for the Emperor, surrounded with gilded pillars, 
with cano]Dies of velvet richly fringed and superbly embroi- 
dered ; separate tents for mosques and oratories ; baths and 
galleries for archery and gymnastic exercises ; and a zenana as 
remarkable for luxury and privacy as that of Delhi. Persian 
carpets, damasks and tapestries ; European velvets, satins and 
broadcloths ; Chinese silks of every description, muslins, and 
cloths of gold were used in the utmost profusion and arranged 
for the greatest effect. Gilded balls and cupolas surmounted 
the tops of the royal tents. Besides all these there were 
separate tents for the household and servants, for the stable, 
the armoury and the kitchen ; and every tent of the whole 
camp had its exact duplicate, which was sent on in advance 
to be prepared for the Emperor's arrival. His march was a 
grand procession, and when he entered his pavilion a salvo 
from fifty pieces of ordnance announced the event. In all 
places and circumstances he assumed and maintained every 
form and ceremony observed at the established residences of 
the imperial court. 

The last twenty-two years of Aurungzeeb's life were spent 
in the Dekkun, in vain endeavours to overcome the rising 
power of the Maharattas. Yet, notwithstanding his absence 



376 India. 

from the seat of government ; his being engaged in a vast and 
costly war, never successful, and at last purely defensive ; the 
continued rebellions of different nations under his rule, and 
the treacheiy of his own family, he maintained his supremacy 
to the last ; enforced the taxes necessary for his vast projects 
and expenses, and even, as before mentioned, carried into 
ojDcration a series of acts calculated to offend the dearest 
rights of the great mass of his subjects. He did all this by his 
great natural abiUties, never-sleeping vigilance, and minute 
personal supervision of every department of his government. 
In person " he planned campaigns, and issued instructions du- 
ring their progress ; drawings of forts were sent to him to fix 
on the points of attack. His letters embrace measures for 
keeping open the roads in the Afghan country, for quelling 
disturbances at Mooltan and Agra, and even for recovering 
Candahar ; and at the same time there is scarcely a detach- 
ment marching, or a convoy moving in the Dekkun without 
some orders from his own hand. The appointment of the 
lowest revenue officer of a district, or the selection of a clerk 
in an office, is not beneath his attention, and the conduct of all 
these functionaries is watched by means of spies and of prying 
enquiries from all comers ; and they are constantly kept on 
the alert by admonitions founded on such information."* 

Aurungzeeb died in 1707, at the city of Ahmudnuggur, 
after a disastrous retreat from the Maharattas. On account 
of his splendour, power, and abiUties, and the zeal which he 
showed for the Mahommedan religion, he is looked upon by 
the Indian Moosulmans as the greatest of all their monarchs. 
After his death, the Empire, which had no homogeneity, and 
no real elements of strength or unity, and which had been 
only held together during his reign by his extraordinary and 
commanding talents, underwent a speedy decay and gradual 
dismemberment. The governors of provinces revolted and 
founded new dynasties; the Maharattas, whom it had been 
the task of his life to hold in check, spread, and conquered, 
until nearly all his dominions fell into their hands, and the 

* Elphinstone'a History of India. 



The Cave Temples of Ellora. 377 

occupant of his throne was their prisoner and puppet ; lastly, 
a power, feebler in its beginnings than either of these, which, 
during his reign, had secured a precarious footing on both 
sides of India, accomplished that which Aurungzeeb, with all 
his Avealth and power, had never been able to effect. They 
subdued the Maharattas, who had grown to be a great and 
powerful nation ; reduced the revolted governors to order and 
dependence on the central power ; reinstated the Emperor in 
his position and rank ; and having spread their conquests be- 
yond what were the farthest limits of India, established a 
government the most liberal, and at the same time the most 
united and powerful that India has ever known, and the first 
which ever secured the unquestioned respect and obedience of 
all its different nations and rulers. 

We took dinner in the " bungalow-tomb," and were after- 
wards preparing to go to bed, when our messenger returned 
from Aurungabad, announcing that we could not occupy the 
tomb, as it had been previously engaged by an officer who 
would arrive late that night. This was rather annoying in- 
telligence, as it was past ten o'clock. However, we called up 
our kuhars, and marched down the hill to the Khailas cave, 
where we slept in our palkees. 

The next morning, as soon as we awoke, we went to visit 
the caves which we had not seen on the previous day. The 
first which we saw was the most northern of the series, about 
a mile from the Khailas, and known as Indra Sabha, since it 
contains a colossal statue of the god Indra, and his wife In- 
dranee. This cave, which is one of the finest, consists of a 
series of chambers, each about fifty feet square, hollowed out 
of the sides of a quarried court. On each side of the court is 
a tall stone pillar, one of which has the remarkable property 
of ringing when struck, and is, in consequence, worshipped by 
the natives. The rooms have the same general appearance as 
those of the other caves, and are decorated with the same 
taste. The court is entered through a wall and gateway of 
solid stone, on one side of which is a monolithic column, and 
on the other a colossal elephant of stone. 

Leaving the cave of Indra, we passed through numerous 



378 India. 

others of minor note, and finally visited the Doorma Lena, 
which contains the largest single room of any one of the 
caves. This is one hundred and thirty feet in width, and of 
nearly the same depth. Besides the large apartment, there 
were numerous smaller rooms arranged in suites. One of 
these had a colonnade opening upon the precipitous side of a 
deep and wild ravine, at the upper end of which was a pretty 
water-fall. Besides the usual sculptured ornaments, the Doorma 
Lena contained many images of Seewa and his wife Parbutee, 
the latter of whom was represented in the congenial occupa- 
tion of impaling a baby. 

Whatever may be the size of the chambers in these apart- 
ments, the roofs are always very low, and the columns which 
sup23ort them broad and heavy. The latter are usually divided 
into about equal heights of capital, shaft, and base, the decora- 
tions of each being remarkably similar to the acanthus-leaf 
designs of Grecian architecture, and quite different from any- 
thing that I had seen elsewhere in India. In fact, these might 
be supposed to be the first rude attempts of art seeking for the 
perfect grace of the Corinthian capital, did we not know that 
the choragic monument of Lysicrates at Athens was completed 
twelve hundred years before these caves were excavated. 

These caves are supposed to have been originally dug by 
the Boodhists, and subsequently altered by the Brahmuns to 
suit their worship. In some of them the alterations have been 
much more important than in others, but in almost all there are 
greater or less traces of a Boodhist origin. The figures of the 
gods, and the carvings which represent the obscene rites of 
Seewa's worship, are evidently late additions. The interiors 
were once decorated with paintings in very bright and durable 
colours, as the similar caves at Ajunteh are to the present day, 
but those in the caves of EUora were all defaced and removed 
by that great iconoclast, Aurungzeeb. 

After breakfast, we all went into the Khailas again, and oc- 
cupied ourselves until two o'clock in sketching some of the 
ornaments and cai)itals of the columns. While thus engaged, 
we were accosted by two yogees,* who had come from 
* Togee, a Hindoo fukheer, or religious mendicant. 



The Cave Temples of EUora. 379 

Hurdwar, the origin of the Ganges Canal. One of these 
fukheers had made his hair of a dirty tow colour by keeping 
ashes and lime on it. He asked whether one of our party, 
whose locks were somewhat of the same hue, had made 
them so by the same means. In another of the caves we saw 
one of these same gentry, who was sitting gathered up in a 
heap, and had occupied the same position for a year without 
speaking, having taken a vow to do so for the remainder of 
his life, as his servant told us. • 

While going through the temples in the morning, Ave saw a 
great many peasants, who had come from Weroola, where a 
fair was going on. They were going through the sights under 
the guidance of a Brahraun, who narrated the various legends 
connected with the gods represented, and demanded a contri- 
bution of money after each story. The peasants were mostly 
Maharatta girls, and very fine-looking. They were generally 
tall, stout, and well-made. They were clad in a saree, or veil, 
and a dhotee, tightly girt up around the loins, as is the cus- 
tom near Bombay. These clothes were made of blue cotton, 
and their arrangement was well adapted to show the graceful 
forms of the wearers. The complexions of these girls were 
light, and their foreheads were marked with a cherry red spot 
of paint. All the natives in this part of the country had very 
light complexions, some scarcely darker than a Spaniard, and 
none so dark as the Bengalees, who are sometimes as black as 
any African. Even in Northern India I seldom saw the skin 
so light as the usual colour in the Bombay Presidency. What 
is a strange thing, the Portugueses^ as they are called, or the 
half-caste descendants of Portuguese, as they are really, who 
form a large class in Bombay, are often much darker than na- 
tives of unmixed blood, and are even occasionally as black as 
a Bengalee. 

* The population of India, of Portuguese descent, is reckoned at one mil- 
lion, wliile the number of the EngHsh in India, until the recent revolt, did not 
exceed fifty thousand, including the soldiers. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

TO BOMBAY. 

Eoad to Dowlutabad— " The City of Eiches"— A Stronghold— The " Master of the Plain" 
— Meet " the Moon-Lady" again — Aurungahad — A Magician — ^Tomb of Aiirungzeeb's 
Daughter — Another Eevolt — Separation of our Forces — Toka — The Godavei-i — 
Brahmuns — A hungry God — Eope-and-boat Bridge — Imampoor — Ahmudnuggur — 
Meet our Friends — The Fort — The Kingdom of Ahmudnuggur — The Largest Brass 
Cannon in the World — Duelling among Natives of India — Chand Beebee again — 
Death of Aurungzeeb — Bombay Kuhars — Seroor — Kondapoora — The Eiver Kistna — 
Poonah — Dismiss our Kuhars— Good-bye to Dhoolee-travelling — Irregular Cavalry. 

About two o'clock we left the caves, in order to arrive at 
Dowlutabad, six miles off, in time to see its castle by day- 
light. We again ascended the Ghat, and passed through 
Roza. The road was very bad, in fact merely a path leading 
through a wild, hilly, and deserted country, so we did not 
reach our destination until five o'clock, and consequently were 
obliged to see the celebrated fortress rather hurriedly, Dow- 
lutabad, the " City of Riches," is a walled town built on a 
level plain which is surrounded by hills. The town is a consi- 
derable one, and entirely in the Moosulman style of architec- 
ture, halving been rebuilt by Aurungzeeb. It contains several 
gardens of trees, and a tall, but now rather ruinous, minar 
erected by the Moosulmans to commemorate the taking of the 
place. In the centre of the city rises a very steep and rocky 
hill, about 700 feet high, upon the summit of which is the 
castle, considered by natives the strongest fortress in the 
world. It was built by the Emperor Mohummud Toghluk, 
who had a fancy for making this place his capital, and twice 
compelled all the inhabitants of Delhi to remove hither. Both 
migrations were attended with great suffering, but in the last 
a large proportion of the people died of starvation, as a famine 
prevailed at the time. 

The ascent to the fortress is alternately by a steep road and 



To Bombay. 381 

flights of stone steps. At intervals there are lines of strong 
defences surrounding the hill. The rocky summit of the hill, 
for a height of one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet, is 
scarped perpendicularly, and is further defended by a deep 
ditch filled with water. From this point the only approach 
to the castle is by a subterranean passage, with steps hollowed 
out of the rock. The top of the hill is entirely occupied by 
the castle, which has very strong walls, and contains various 
tiers of fortified ramparts. We were led through the apart- 
ments of the zenana, and one or two small garden-courts. 
The whole pile is quite extensive. On top of the highest 
tower we found a great cannon, twenty feet long, called 
"Maidan ka Malik" or "Master of the Plain." Close beside 
it, the standard of the Nizam, a triangular flag of tattered 
blue cotton, floated from a flag-staflf. This fortress is said by 
the natives to have been besieged twelve years, by Aurung- 
zeeb, to obtain the hand of a princess, the " Chand Beebee" 
— a not very probable story, as the Chand Beebee died fifty 
years before his reign began. 

The fortress of Dowlutabad must have been quite impreg- 
nable before bombs were used in warfare ; and even they 
would not do the garrison much injury so extensive are the 
subterranean passages and apartments. Still, like most of the 
other fortresses of India, it is valueless to the English, as it 
commands nothing, and is only adapted for the stronghold of 
a robber-prince. It is, therefore, left in the hands of the 
Nizam, and garrisoned by a few of his sepoys, who are as 
miserable excuses for soldiers as I ever saw. 

Dowlutabad is famous for its grapes, which are very large, 
and resemble those produced in our hot-houses. Before leaving, 
we laid in a good supply of them to eat in our palkees. About 
eleven in the evening we arrived at the dak-bungalow of 
Aurungabad, seven miles from Dowlutabad. We found that 
it would be impossible to get dinner, and were obliged to go 
to bed fasting, although we had had nothing but a cup of 
coftee and a biscuit during the day. However, we had been 
getting gradually used to irregularity of meals, and bore it 
like men. 



382 India. 

It was on the evening of February 24th that we arrived at 
Aurungabad. The next day was very warm, so we remained 
indoors eating the excellent grapes, oranges, and figs of this 
region, and witnessing the performances of some jugglers, 
which were by far the most wonderful feats of the kind I have 
ever seen, particularly as they were performed upon the' 
gravel road, and without the least preparations. One of the 
tricks consisted in wrapping a boy in a net so tightly that he 
could neither move his feet nor his arms, which were folded 
across his chest. The net was then tied by a firm knot 
behind. The boy thus bound was placed in a basket only just 
large enough to hold him, and the basket, which lay on the 
ground, was covered with a cloth. After some ceremonies, 
the magician assured us that the boy had gone to the bazar, 
to prove which he called him, and was answered by a childish 
voice far in the distance. Whether this was effected by ven- 
triloquism or a confederate, I do not know. He then ap- 
proached the basket, and, to further prove that it was empty, 
thrust a spear through it in all directions. This part of the 
performance was quite incomprehensible, as the basket was so 
small that the boy could hardly be crammed in, in the first 
place ; and it, as well as the spear, were submitted for our in- 
spection, to show that there were no false bottoms, or other 
similar devices employed by European stage-jugglers. A few 
more ceremonies recalled the boy, who jumped out of the 
basket, unembarrassed by the net, which was rolled up and 
held in his hand. 

Toward evening we walked into the city, which is two 
miles from the cantonments where the bungalow is situated. 
Outside the walls is a tomb of one of Aurungzeeb's daughters, 
which is said to be a model of the Taj at Agra. It is, indeed, 
a good deal like it, but not nearly so large, and, moreover, 
built of pukka instead of marble. From the top of one of the 
minars we had a view of the whole city, which is a place of 
much greater extent than I had supposed. It was built by 
Aurungzeeb, as its name implies, and is, like Roza and Dowlu- 
tabad, purely in the Moosulman style. 

On returning to the dak-bungalow we informed our kuhars. 



To Bombay. 383 

as usual, that we should start after dinner, and Avere surprised 
by their refusing to go en until some demands for an advance 
of wages were satisfied. This we had previously refused, as 
well from principle as from necessity — the ready money of the 
party being almost exhausted. We could, of course, do noth- 
ing that night, but determined to a23ply to the authorities next 
day. In this, however, we were forestalled by the bearers. 

Although Aurungabad is in the Nizam's territories, and the 
cantonments are occupied by his troops, yet the magistrate is 
English, as are many of the other officers in the Nizam's service. 
This accounts for the revolt being made at Aurungabad, as the 
previous one had been at Indor. 

As we were breakfasting next morning we were surprised 
by the arrival of a peon,* with a summons to appear before 
the commandant and answer to a complaint of our kuhars. 
When breakfast was finished, two of our party accordingly 
proceeded to that officer's house. He caused our Persian and 
English agreements to be translated, and as it appeared from 
them that we were entirely in the right, he ordered our men 
to go on quietly under pain of losing all the wages due to 
them, and of being imprisoned if disorderly. 

We supposed that this would prevent further difficulty, and 
after dinner were prepared to start, when the bearers of one 
of the party refused to move. As this was becoming intoler- 
able, he gave the mate and several others a beating, upon 
which all his men took to their heels and ran away. The 
other bearers, however, professed their readiness to go on, so 
my two American friends left us for Ahmudnuggur. I re- 
mained, although my men were quite ready to proceed, as I 
was afraid that the kuhars who were beaten might cause trouble. 
We, however, heard nothing more of the mate and six of the 
number, but toward evening five of those who had deserted 
returned and proffered their services, with whom, and eleven 
new bearers obtained at Aurungabad, we started on the even- 
ing of February 27th. 

* Peon — A native attendant on a court of justice. The word is Spanish, 
and is also used in India to designate a class of servants employed for 
errands and to oversee work. 



384 India. 

On awaking next morning we found ourselves at Toka dak- 
bungalow, twenty-nine miles from Aurungabad. The bungalow 
is situated on the right bank of the Godaveri, which here forms 
the boundary between the Nizam's territories and the Bombay 
Presidency. On the opposite bank is the town of Toka, at the 
junction of another river with the Godaveri, and there are 
two other towns in sight, one on each of the points of land 
formed by the junction of the two rivers. During the afternoon 
we walked through two of these towns, which, though not 
large, we found well built of stone, wdth large high houses and a 
beautiful stone ghat along one part of the river's bank. One 
of the towns seemed a place of some sanctity, and contained 
four very handsome temples, around which there were a large 
number of Brahmuns idling, who at once assailed us with de- 
mands for eenam, as they call in the Dekkun what is known 
as bucksees in Northern India. We amused ourselves by pre- 
tending that we had no money, and asked alms of them, pre- 
tending that we were poor travellers — an assertion well borne 
out by our scanty and tattered attire. They would not at 
first believe us, but when they had once swallowed the story 
they became so insolent that it required all our self-command 
to restrain the avenging hand. Luckily, we remembered the 
danger that there is in striking a god, and prudently retired. 
The Brahmuns are, I think, the most disgusting and presuming 
wretches I ever met. One day while we were resting under 
a grove, a great dirty fellow, smeared with cow-dung and 
wearing the sacred thread over his shoulder, with no clothing 
but a rag six inches wide, marched boldly up to us and asked 
for paisa (farthings). I, being paymaster, w^anted to know 
" what for ?" when he answered as coolly as possible, " because 
I am a god and am hungry." If I could have mustered Hin- 
doostanee enough, I would have told him that if his divine 
character could not protect him from hunger it certainly 
should not secure him unmerited charity. As it was, I could 
only recommend him, in terse and vigourous language, to re- 
move himself, as speedily as possible, beyond the reach of 
personal chastisement. 

There is a rope-and-boat bridge across the river at Toka, on 



To Bombay. 385 

a principle which I have seen applied in France and Minnesota. 
The waters of the river were considerably shrunken from the 
long drought, and a regular bazar had been established on the 
sandy bed which was left dry. Here we laid in a fresh supply 
of the fine grapes of the country. Outside of the bazar were 
a number of those little basket houses, some of which we had 
seen at Sirporah. 

The next morning we arrived at Imampoor bungalow, which 
consists of an old Moosulman tomb, repaired and fitted up for 
the reception of travellers. It is built at the top of a steep 
hill, and the country around is utterly barren, although the 
enclosure of the bunsjalow contains some fine trees. 

From Toka to Imampoor is twenty-six miles, but after break- 
fast we determined to proceed to Ahmudnuggur, twelve miles 
further, where we hoped to overtake the two members of our 
party who had separated from us at Aurungabad. We ac- 
cordingly started at three in the afternoon, and walked into 
Nuggur^^ by seven, where we found our friends at dinner. 
We were all very glad to meet again, and passed the evening 
in recounting our adventures since separating. 

The next day was so warm that it was afternoon before we 
ventured out of doors. We found Ahmudnuggur to be a 
considerable station, but the native town, although of some 
importance, has nothing worth seeing but its fort. This is of 
large size, but has been entirely modernized and the interior 
cleared of the mass of buildings which always encumber a na- 
tive stronghold. The fort is now garrisoned and used as an 
arsenal. 

Ahmudnuggur was once the capital of a large and powerful 
kingdom, under a Moosulman dynasty, which arose on the 
dissolution of the Bahmunee empire in the Dekkun. The 
founder of this dynasty was Ahmud, after whom the city 
was called, its name signifying " The City of Ahmud." He 
was originally a slave, but having attained a position of influ- 
ence under the Bahmunee Emperor, succeeded in founding 

* Although tho real name of the city is Ahmudnuggur, it is usually caUe^ 
simply Nugg-ur, both by the inhabitants and by others. 

17 



386 India. 

an independent kingdom for himself and his descendants. The 
throne was occupied by members of his family from 1490 to 
1637. These sovereigns ruled over a great extent of country, 
and it would appear that they possessed powerful armaments, 
not ouly from the long resistance which they offered to the Mo- 
gul Emperors, but also from the fact narrated in the history of 
Furishta, that in one campaign they lost six hundred cannon. 
Many of these were doubtless mere swivels, to be fired from 
the backs of camels, but one at least was of immense size. It 
is still in existence, and is four feet eight inches in diameter at 
the muzzle and fifteen feet long. Its calibre is two feet four 
inches, and its weight forty tons, being probably the largest 
piece of brass ordnance known. 

Furishta mentions the prevalence under this dynasty of 
duelhng, a custom almost unknown in Asia. Duels were oc- 
casioned by the most trifling disputes, and it was considered 
dishonourable to decline a challenge. ISTo blame was attached 
to the death of one of the parties, provided the combat was 
fair. These duels w^ere always fought with sabres. 

It was during the wars carried on against this kingdom by 
Akbur, that the Chand Beebee or Chand Sooltana, as she is 
often called, displayed that heroic character which has made 
her name famous throughout Western India. Her most cele- 
brated exploit was the defence of the Ahmudnuggur fort, 
during which she fought with her own hands in the breach, 
and finally compelled the Hindoostanee forces to come to 
terms. The common tradition among the natives is, that du- 
ring the siege, after the supply of cannon balls was exhausted, 
she loaded her guns successively with copper, with silver, and 
gold coins, and did not consent to make terms until the only 
missiles remaining were her jewels. She died about the 
year 1600, murdered during a mutiny of her soldiers. Her 
infant nephew, for whom she had been acting as regent, was 
confined in the fort at Gwahor by the Mogul Emperor, and 
soon died. In 1637, under Shah Jehan, the dynasty was 
finally extinguished, and its territories were added to the ag- 
glomeration of conquered countries which formed the empire 
of the Mogul sovereigns. 



To Bombay. 387 

It was in Ahmudnuggtn* that the Emperor Aurungzeeb, ex- 
hausted with twenty years of ceaseless and disastrous warfare, 
at length found in death that repose which the activity and 
energy of his character, and the continual fear and suspicion 
in which he lived, never allowed him to enjoy during life. 
Even on his death-bed he would not j^ermit the presence of 
his sons, for fear that some treachery on their part should 
curtail the few hours of existence which he knew were all 
that remained to him. He had waded to the throne throusrh 
the blood of his relations, and during his whole life he was tor- 
mented by a not ill-grounded apprehension that the same fate, 
by which almost all his ancestors and family had perished, 
would in the end overtake himself. 

About five in the evening we walked to the parade-ground 
to hear the music, which was tolerably good for a Bombay 
band. Only a few of the officers and ladies of the station 
were present. Afterwards we returned to the bungalow and 
dined. In the evenmg we started for Seroor, forty miles 
distant. Gibson here dismissed the bearers whom he had 
hired at Aurungabad, and proceeded in a " nuggur-cart" — a 
conveyance resembling the garrhees on the Grand Trunk 
road, except that it is mounted on two wheels only, and 
drawn by a pair of bullocks. The five or six of his original 
set of bearers who had remained faithful, accompanied us as 
supplementaries as far as Poonah, where we received a supply 
of money and paid them all off. Gibson's men were appa- 
rently glad to get rid of the Aurungabad kuhars, who did not 
seem to fraternize at all. They had a different step, a differ- 
ent grunt (three notes instead of two"^), and would neither eat 
nor smoke with the Agra bearers. 

We arrived at Seroor bungalow on the morning of March 
3d. It is situated in the midst of an utterly barren and deso- 
late country. As far as the eye can see around there is no 
evidence of vegetable or animal life, except the pariah dogs, 
looking like mangy wolves, and the flocks of kites and solitary 
vultures which form a feature in every Indian landscape. 

* A better distinction would be to say " three neighs instead of two grunts." 



388 India. 

Dreary as this picture is, it is not an exaggerated description 
of mucli of the country in India. 

The next day we passed at the dak-bungalo\7 of Konda- 
poora, forty-six miles from Seroor. Between the two places 
we crossed several rivers, branches of the Kistna which emp- 
ties into the Bay of Bengal. Indeed all the rivers of this part 
of India, even those which rise within thirty miles of the 
western coast, flow eastwardly and pour their waters into the 
sea which washes the Coromandel Coast, 

Kondapoora is in the midst of that desolate and jungly 
scenery which wearied our eyes from the time that we left 
Indor. 

The following day, March 5th, we arrived at the dak-bungalow 
of Poonah, one of the largest stations m the Bombay Presi- 
dency, and within 120 miles of that city. At this point we 
paid off our bearers, and bade adieu to dhoolee travelling. 
Since leaving Agra we had come nine hundred and sixty-six 
miles on men's shoulders, and were getting heartily tired of 
that mode of locomotion. At the same time, on looking back, 
I must say that there is not a more agreeable conveyance than 
the dhoolee in use anywhere (except it be the garrhee of 
Bengal), especially where, as in India, most of the travelling 
is done by night. 

Settling the accounts of our bearers, and dismissing them, 
occupied a whole day. The next day we were detained in- 
doors examining and purchasing some of the various fancy 
articles manufactured at Poonah. 

When we were at Poonah the number of troops in the 
station was considerably reduced by the Persian war. Among 
those still remaining was a regiment of irregular cavalry who 
had encamped opposite the dak-bungalow. The irregular 
cavalry in the various Presidencies are volunteers in the ful- 
lest sense of the term. They find their own horses, enlist and 
retire from the service when they please, and each man is 
allowed to choose his own costume and arms. In this last 
respect, however, they do not avail themselves of their liberty, 
but wear a uniform native dress, and procure their arras 
through the colonel of the regiment. One of the best points 



To Bombay. 389 

in the equipment is the retaining of the native saddle, a cloth 
pad, which gives a much softer and firmer seat than the 
European "pig skin." Each regiment has only three Euro- 
jDean officers, who, like their men, wear the native costume. 
The discipline in these regiments is even less rigid than in the 
regular army ; and they answer a very useful purpose by 
giving employment to that large class of natives, mostly 
Moosulmans, who have been deprived of occupation by the 
Company's government, and who, being too proud to work, 
would become dangerous and disorderly were not some such 
career offered to them. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

BOMBAY. 

Khandala — The Ghat Mountains — Cave Temples — The Eailway — Obstacles to its Con- 
struction-^Sitaationof Bomhay — The Fort — Natiye Town — Eesidences of Europeans 
— Growth of Eastern Cities — Commercial Ability of Natives — Commerce of Bombay 
and Calcutta — Variety of Nationalities represented in Bombay — Parsees — Their 
Costume, Eeligion, and Customs — Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy — Other Native Inhabi- 
tants — Hindooism in Bombay — B6horas and Portuguese — Peculiarities of English — 
Degeneracy of all other Nations in the East — The Hoolee — Nach at the House of 
Juggurnathj«e Sunkurset — Anglomania in India — Old Hindoo Costume — Cave Tem- 
I)le of Elephanta. 

On the afternoon of March. 6th we left Poonah in a phaeton, 
and arrived at eight o'clock at the dak-bungalow of Khandala, 
a place situated on the summit of the ghat of the same name. 
During the drive we saw constant marks of the railway which 
is being built to connect Bombay with the interior of the 
country. 

The next morning we walked down the Khandala Ghat, 
which is three thousand feet high. It is one of that chaia of 
mountains which runs parallel to the western shore of India, 
and separates the narrow strip of land known as the Malabar 
Coast, from the lofty table-land of the Dekkun. This whole 
range is called by Europeans the Western Ghaut Mountains. 
ISTear the southern extremity of the Peninsula they unite with 
another range, the Eastern Ghauts, which form the eastern 
boundary of the Dekkun, and separate it from the low plains 
of the Carnatic and the Coromandel Coast. 

The scenery of the Khandala Ghat is very picturesque, and 
in many places the soft rock has been excavated into cave 
temples similar to those at ERora. These, however, have long 
been abandoned as places of worship, and were occupied as 



Bombay. 351 

tem23oraiy abodes by the workmen employed ujDon the rail- 
way, which is being conducted up the hill by a series of in- 
clined planes and tunnels. The hill-side was entirely covered 
by the workmen employed in this undertaking, but the work 
was on so gigantic a scale that it was doubtful when it would 
be completed. Meanwhile they were going on with the line 
on the table-land above, and many additional miles were soon 
to be opened. This railway forms one of that series which 
has been planned, and is now being carried out, to connect all 
the principal coast towns of India with each other and the 
interior of the country. The progress in the construction of 
these roads has, however, been slow, the chief obstacle, as I 
understood, being that which is so universal a complaint in 
India, viz., the difficulty of obtaining efficient and honest 
overseers. It is therefore impossible to say vrhen this vast 
scheme, which will have so important an effect on the produc- 
tiveness of India, will be carried into practical ojoeration. 

At the foot of the hiU we found the railway terminus, and 
getting on the train at two o'clock arrived in Bombay at seven 
— a distance of seventy miles. This may seem slow travelling, 
but appeared fast enough to us who had been used to doing 
the same distance in three days, by palkee. 

Bombay, the capital of the smallest Enghsh Presidency, is a 
city of nearly 500,000 inhabitants. It is built upon an island, 
which is separated by a shallow strait from the larger island 
of Salsette. An arm of the sea, running north and south, 
separates both these islands, on their eastern side, from the 
mainland of India, but on the north the lines of water which 
divide them from each other, and from the continent, are so 
small that they might better be taken together and described 
as a triangular promontory projecting from the coast line of 
the continent. 

The extremity of the island is occupied by the city proper, 
which is only about three quarters of a mile square, and being 
strongly fortified, is known as " Fort St. George." This was 
formerly the residence of the Europeans, but of late years they 
have preferred to occupy bungalows in the country, and the 
whole island is therefore covered with country seats, belong- 



392 India. 

ing to wealthy Europeans and natives. Even the Governor 
now lives in a house at Parell, a place several miles from the 
town. The houses in the fort, which were once occupied as 
residences, are novv^ used almost entirely as places of business, 
and the greater part of the inhabitants of " the Fort" are 
natives. But the native town proper is built outside the walls 
of the fort, and contains much the largest part of the popula- 
tion of the island. The houses are generally very large and 
high, built either of pukka, or else with wooden frames filled 
In with brick-work, and faced with white stucco, in such a way 
as to leave the black wooden beams in si^ht. 

Between the native town and the fort is a large and level 
plain, washed on two sides by the waters of the harbour. This 
is kept open and used as a parade-ground, and also for the 
evening drive of the Europeans and wealthy natives. 

The country around Bombay, where are the residences of 
the Europeans, is very beautiful ; the ground is well planted 
with trees, and the foHage has that rich tro^ncal character of 
which one hears so much before going to India, and sees so 
Httle when he gets there. 

The growth of Bombay is entirely due to its commerce, and 
has been marked by the same extraordinary increase which is 
seen in Calcutta. A century ago there were not fifty thou- 
sand inhabitants ; now there are over half a milhon, and the 
population is still on the increase, having doubled in the last 
ten years. Calcutta, which was a mere village a hundred 
years ago, is now even much larger than Bombay. These in- 
stances of growth, which almost equal anything even in Amer- 
ica, show with what rapidity an immense j^opulation will 
gather, in India, around any centre of trade and commerce. 
Indeed, the natives of India are naturally among the most 
acute and sagacious traders in the world, and yield to no 
other nation in their fondness for wealth. 

The power of the " almighty dollar" in America, and the 
reverence shown to " pounds, shillings, and pence" in England, 
are bywords among the nations of the European continent, 
whose feelinojs are embodied in the sneerins; lang-uao-e of 
IRapoleon, who called the Enghsh a nation of shopkeeiDcrs. 



Bombay. 393 

The Frenchman twits the Englishman with belonging to a 
nation of shopkeepers. The Englishman believes the Amer- 
ican to be a slave of the " almighty dollar." But French, 
English, Americans, and, indeed, all European nations, unite 
in despising the Jew as the embodiment of the lowest and 
most absorbing form of avarice, as a man who would over- 
reach his father in a bargain, and in dealing wdth whom the 
shrewdest Christian will probably find more than his match. 
And yet w^hen brought into competition with the native of 
India, the Jew is absolutely "nowhere." In every depart- 
ment of business, great or small, high or low, legal or illegal, 
he is completely beaten out of the field, and it would be ad- 
mitted in India that a Jew is as much at the mercy of the 
Hindoo bazar merchants, as a green Yankee is likely to be an 
easy prey of " my peoplesh" in Chatham street. If the Hin- 
doo and other native traders had as much regard for their 
recantation as they have of other business qualities, no other 
nation could contend with them on their own ground, and 
trade with foreign countries would be entirely carried on by 
native houses. Even now, most of the European business is 
done vrith native capital, although largely managed by Eu- 
ropean firms. In Bombay, this is especially the case. Al- 
most the whole w^ealth of the place is in the hands of natives, 
particularly Parsees ; and of the business establishments much 
the larger part are conducted by natives, and many of the 
rest rely principally on native capital. 

The foreign commerce of Bombay amounted, in the year 
1853-54, to eight milhon four hundred and forty thousand pounds 
sterling of imports, and nine millions and a half exports. In the 
same year the foreign commerce of Calcutta amounted to seven 
million seven hundred thousand pounds sterling imports, and 
eleven milhons and a half exports.^ These figures show the 
remarkable fact that the business done in Bombay is but little 
inferior to that of Calcutta, and also that the discrepancy is 
chiefly in the amount of exports, Bombay taking nearly the 
same amount of foreign produce as Calcutta. It w^ill be no- 
ticed that in both cases the exports much exceed the imports, 
* These figures are from M. Do Valbezeu's work on India. 



394 



India. 



which accounts for the constant drain of silver in the direction 
of India. The trade of Bombay with England amounted, in 
the above-named year, to only three millions one hundred and 
fifty thousand pounds sterhng of imports, and two millions six 
hundred thousand pounds sterling of exports. The remainder, 
or almost two-thirds of the whole commerce, was with other 
oriental countries, such as China and Arabia. 

This commerce with oriental countries attracts to Bombay 
merchants of all the Eastern nations, and makes it the most 
cosmopohtan city of India. The streets are filled with Per- 
sians, Arabs, Copts, Afghans, Abyssinians and other Africans, 
Chinese, Jews, and members of almost every nation in India. 
The study of the characteristic peculiarities of these different 
nations adds not a little to a stranger's interest in Bombay, 
and makes it, for a traveller, much the most instructive city 
in India. 

Of the native inhabitants, the Parsees, who number about 
twenty-five thousand, are the most remarkable class. Their 
name, which is merely the Hindoostanee word for " a Persian," 
indicates their origin. They are in fact the descendants of 
the old fire-worshippers of Persia, who were driven out of 
that country in the seventh century by the Mahommedan 
invasion, and taking refuge in India established their nation 
as a peculiar people, who, to the present day foUow the pre- 
cepts of Zoroaster and worship the eternal fire as Cyrus did. 
They still preserve their national characteristics, and have 
regular, and often finely-formed features, and complexions 
nearly as fair as those of Europeans. 

Since this people have been in India they have adopted the 
Hindoo dress, altering it somewhat, as is customary with dif- 
ferent nations and classes. They wear a high, flat turban of 
brown chintz, which looks so much like a mitre that some per- 
sons have supposed that it is the old Persian cap, or tiara, 
mentioned by Herodotus and Xenophon. This, however, is 
not the case — it is merely one of the many extraordinary forms 
which the turban assumes in Bombay. The present Persian 
head-covering, a very high, brimless hat of felt, in exactly the 
shape of a pointed sugar-loaf, is much more probably a con- 



Bombay. 395 

tiimation of the old tiara, and answers nearly to the descrip- 
tion of it in the Greek writers. The Parsees are as particular 
about caste, as any other natives of India. It is not a part 
of their original system, but has been borrowed by them from 
the Hindoos, as also by the Moosulmans. Being fire-worship- 
pers, they have a great reverence for that element, and will 
never employ it, except on necessary occasions, as in cooking 
food — however, the culinary operation is, I believe, with them, 
as with the Hindoos, a sort of sacramental act. For this reason, 
the Parsees never smoke, nor will they allow smoking in their 
presence. To this rule, however, there are exceptions, in the 
case of some of their merchants, who will allow Enghsh and 
Americans to puff cheroots in their countijig-houses, and will 
even light a lucifer for them on occasion. It is said that, when 
a Parsee is dying, his relatives place him in an out-house sur- 
rounded by a wall of stones, and leave him there without food 
or drink until he dies. Mrs. Mackenzie tells an instance of 
this, where an English physician found one of his Parsee pa- 
tients thus walled up, and only managed to get him out by 
threatening to enter a charge . of murder against the whole 
family. He succeeded in restormg his patient, who Uved for 
some weeks afterward. This strange people do not bury their 
dead, but expose the corpses in open stone towers, where the 
bodies are eaten by birds. Another of their peculiarities is a 
superstitious regard for dogs, a feeling which they carry to 
such an extent that, when the city government of Bombay, 
some years ago, ordered all stray dogs to be killed, the Par- 
sees made such a riot that the military had to be caUed out to 
restore order. The Parsee women are kept in a retirement 
more strict than that of the Moosulman and Hindoo women. 
If any accidents occur, notwithstanding these precautions, the 
fair and frail one is brought before a council of five (pan- 
chayut), which is in India the general resort for settling all 
difiiculties. If she is found guilty, she disappears. Of late 
years, however, there has been a disposition to admit the 
women to more public society, and now it is even sometimes 
customary to take them abroad in carriages, the blinds of 
which, however, are always drawn. This change, if made, 



396 India. 

will be an imitation of English custom, for the Parsees are the 
greatest Anglo-maniacs in India, and affect English usages as 
far as possible, some of them even wearing English trowsers 
and boots. 

The Parsees are more enterprising, and generally much 
better informed, than any other class of natives. They carry 
on business, not only with England, but also with China and 
other Eastern ports, in all of which are found representatives 
of then* nation. One of their number, Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeeb- 
hoy, has obtained a world-wide reputation by his extensive 
charities. His property, v/hich is now estimated at three crors 
of rupees (115,000,000), was accumulated entirely by his own 
exertions during a long life of nearly eighty years. His ex- 
tensive and most useful charities, amounting to over a million 
and a half of dollars, obtained for him the honour of knight- 
hood, and a subsequent elevation to the baronetcy. Both re- 
wards were well deserved, and were most highly valued by 
himself and his whole nation, especially as it was the first in- 
stance of such a dignity being conferred upon a subject of her 
Majesty's Indian dominions. 

Besides the Parsees, the native inhabitants of Bombay are 
composed of the Hindoos and various classes of Moosulmans. 
The former are a finer looking race than the natives of ISTorth- 
ern India. I do not know whether they are taller, but they 
appeared stouter and more compact, and had much lighter 
skins. Their manners are also much more manly and inde- 
pendent than those of the Hindoostanee and Bengalee, and 
they do not use in conversation those phrases and attitudes of 
servile humility which prevail where the Moosulman influence 
has been predominant. Their dress is substantially the same 
that is seen elsewhere in India, but the chupkun is made 
short-waisted, and, on occasions of ceremony, is worn with an 
immensely full skirt, descending to the heels, and giving the 
wearer a decidedly womanish appearance. The turbans are gen- 
erally very large, and made with great care, in various odd, and 
not always graceful shapes, which distinguish the different castes 
and trades. On the whole, I think there are a much larger 
number of Hindoos well and carefully dressed in Bombay than 



Bombay. 397 

in any other city of India which I saw ; and the style of cos- 
tume, if not so gay and jaunty as in Northern India, is more 
eifective and picturesque. The lower classes of Hindoos, of 
course, as elsewhere, have almost no clothmg. In Bombay, 
the drapery is often limited to a strip of cotton, six inches 
wide, passing between the legs, and fastened in front and be- 
hind to a string tied around the waist. 

It is a strange fact, that the Hindoo religion is much more 
powerful and vigourous in this part of India than in the ISTorth, 
which was its earhest cradle and still contains by far the great- 
est proportion of Brahmuns and high-caste people. In the 
Bombay Presidency, the temples are larger, finer, and more 
frequented than in the ISTorth. Almost every Hindoo is painted 
on his forehead with the mark of his god, a thing that is com- 
paratively rare at the North ; and, although they are great 
Anglo-maniacs in Bombay, and in many respects break through 
old native customs, yet there is not the least sign of such in- 
fidelity as is spreading in Calcutta, and no such disregard of 
their caste and religious rules as is fashionable among the 
wealthy Hmdoos of that city. 

Among the various sects of Moosulmans in Bombay, the 
only one which merits notice are the Bohoras, a caste almost 
peculiar to that city. Their clothes are generally white, or of 
a shade between fight yellow and drab, and they wear a raw- 
silk turban. They will not smoke, and are the only Indian 
Moosulmans who will engage in trade, or any other occupation 
than public or private service. 

The Portuguese, as they are called, form another large class 
in Bombay. They come from Goa, and are darker in com- 
plexion than most of the natives. What little Portuguese 
blood there is left in tlieir veins seems only to deteriorate the 
qualities which they derived from their native mothers, and 
their only occupation is as servants or small shoj^keepers. 

This one peculiarity distinguishes the English settlers abroad 
from all other nations. ^ The English keep themselves separate 
and aloof from the natives. They preserve their old habits, 
manners, and morals, and consequently their character re- 
mains unchanged, and their pristine vigour uninq^aired. In 



398 India. 

this way fifty thousand English have conquered and held in 
united strength an empire composed of 180,000,000 of men of 
all sorts of nations and languages. The Portuguese, on the 
other hand, and the French, seemed at once to coalesce with 
the natives whom they conquered. They assumed native 
dress and habits, married native wives, and eventually became 
degraded to the level of natives, and were absorbed by their 
overwhehning numbers. This metamoi'phosis is even more 
marked in the case of the Mahommedan conquerors of India, 
who, in a few years, became changed from brave and hardy 
Tartars or Afghans, into the weak, cringing, idle and luxu- 
rious Moosulmans of Hindoostan. At the present day they are 
scarcely at all distinguishable from Hindoos ; they have uni- 
versally adoj^ted the Hindoo custom of caste, and in many 
places have almost lost their old faith and become idolaters. 
In fact, at the present time, they are inferior to many of the 
Hindoos in physical advantages ; and as regards their mental 
qualities, are sunk even below the level of other natives. I 
have spoken before of the deterioration of the Portuguese in 
China, which is also a case in point. In fact, that very pecu- 
liarity of the English, which, I have heard said by Frenchmen 
and others, disqualified them from governing foreign countries, 
by shutting them ofi" from all sympathy and common feeling 
with their subjects, is, I believe, the quahty to which is to be 
attributed their unexampled success in India, where French 
and Portuguese in equal or greater numbers failed almost 
from the beginning, and where the Mahommedans, though 
more than a hundred times as numerous, never got so sure a 
footing, so united an empire, and so submissive an obedience. 
During our stay at Bombay occurred the festival of the 
Hoolee, or Hindoo ISTew-Year, which is celebrated throughout 
India, but more particularly in those parts that are thoroughly 
Hindoo. Besides the religious ceremonies observed, there are 
entertainments in the residences of the richer classes, and it is 
customary for the natives to pelt one another with red balls 
or a red liquid that stains the clothes and makes them look as 
if they were covered with blood. In some of the native 
courts elephants are trained to eject this liquid from their 



Bombay. 3gg 

trunks. The aid of modem science has even been called in, and 
fire-engines are used to squirt the red liquid from the palace 
wall upon the Rajah's subjects below. 

By the Idndness of some Parsee friends we were invited to 
two of the largest entertainments given during the festival. 
The first was at the house of a wealthy Hindoo, Juggurnathjeo 
Sunkurset. His residence is a large mansion, built and fur- 
nished in the English style. The rooms were hghted during 
the evening and thrown open for the inspection of visitors. 
The nach, however, was given in a temporary building of 
bamboo and canvass, erected for the occasion in the court- 
yard. The bamboo building formed one large room, about 
a hundred feet long by sixty broad ; and the canvass walls 
were painted to represent Italian frescoes. On the floor was 
a Persian carpet, and along each side were parallel rows of 
sofas crow^ded with rich Hindoos and Parsees. At the U23per 
end was a dais, on which sat our host and his more honoured 
guests, among whom were the Admiral of the Company's 
Navy and liis family. At the lower end of the room were the 
nach girls, who were but little different from those of Delhi, 
excej^t that they wore less voluminous dresses. At our en- 
trance our entertainer rose to meet us, and sprinkled us with 
rose-water from a silver bottle, having a top perforated like a 
pepper-castor. We were also served with " pans," which are 
some slices of areca-nut and fine chunam (lime) wrapped in a 
betel-leaf. These are much used for chewing by all classes of 
natives, and are always served to guests as coffee and pipes are 
in Ottoman countries. The taste is aromatic, and slightly as- 
tringent ; and the juice, which is swallowed, is said to have a 
tonic effect on the stomach. The guests all sat on the sofas as 
naturally as possible, and also wore their shoes, w^hich is an 
excess of Anglicism to which natives in Xorthern India have 
not yet attained. I heard in Calcutta that a few members of 
" Young Bengal" had attempted to wear their shoes at the 
Governor General's receptions, but his lordship told them de- 
cidedly that they must show some sign of respect either by 
uncovering the head as Europeans do, or by removing the 
shoes, as is the native custom. 



400 India. 

We afterwards went to another nacli at the house of a Hin- 
doo physician. This entertainment was much smaller than 
the other, and those present all sat on the carpet in the native 
fashion. The doctor was a graduate of the University of 
Bombay, and had, as we understood, obtained a high position 
in his profession. He spoke excellent Enghsh, and was at 
great j)ains to entertain us. His dress was a chupkun, of the 
old fashion, with a skirt descending to the ankle, and formed 
of an infinite quantity of the finest white muslin gathered into 
an immense number of folds at the waist. On the following 
day, however, when we called on him, we found him without 
any clothing at all above the hips, which I fancy is his usual 
costume, at least when in the house. 

The Hoolee lasted for several days, and during the whole 
time, these naches continued, and the streets were filled with 
gaily-dressed natives whose white dresses were liberally stained 
with the crimson marks of the season. At night the streets 
were brilliantly lighted, and even more crowded than during 
the day. 

The greatest sight of Bombay is the cave temple in the 
island of Elephanta, which we visited in company with a mem- 
ber of the Parsee house of Dossabhoy, Merwanjee & Co., who 
were unremitting in their attentions during our stay. 

"We embarked in a "bunder-boat," a small native craft 
with a cabin, and sailed the seven miles to the island in about 
an hom-'s time, the wind being light. Long before reaching 
the shore our boat grounded, as the water is very shallow, 
and we were obhged to mount on the shoulders of some of the 
boatmen, who waded ashore with us on their backs. 

The island is high, and richly covered with tropical trees 
and plants. A stone path, with several series of steps, leads 
up to the temple, which is over half a mile from the landing- 
place. 

The temple is a large square room with a flat roof about 
twenty feet high, supported by several rows of massive pillars. 
The whole is carved out of the solid rock like the caves of 
Ellora, and in form and decorations much resembles some of 
them. At the further end is the principal idol, which is a co- 



Bombay. ^oi 

lossal bust with three heads. This has been supposed to rep- 
resent the Trimoortee, or Hindoo Trinity, but there are 
objections to this theory, and to all the other hypotheses 
which have been invented to explain its meaning. Several 
other statues decorate this apartment, and on each side is a 
smaller chamber, oj^ening into the larger one, and also con- 
taining idols. 

The antiquity of this temple has long furnished a subject of 
wonder for visitors to Bombay ; and their fancy has had almost 
unlimited ground for conjecture as there is no insciiption or 
other sign by which the antiquarian would be enabled to fix 
the age exactly. Late investigations, however, and particu- 
larly a comparison with similar caves the age of which is known, 
have combined to attribute to it a date more modern than the 
year 900 of our era. "What adds to the probability of this 
conclusion is the fact that during the short time that it has 
been known to Europeans, although every care for its preser- 
vation has been taken by the authorities, it has sustained great 
injury from the weather, which makes it extremely improbable 
that so perishable a material as the soft stone from which it is 
excavated, could resist the power of the elements for many 
centuries. 

The island of Elephanta was so named by the Portuguese. 
Its native name is Shahpooree. The Portuguese name is de- 
rived from a gigantic stone elephant, three times the size of 
life, which stands a short distance from the cave. This figure, 
however, hke the cave itself, is very much defaced by the action 
of the weather, and the form of an animal, which it bears on 
its back, is noAV so disfigured that its disthictive peculiarities 
cannot be distinguished. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

BOMBAY TO CAIRO. 

The "Ganges" — Our Fellow-passengers — The Crew — Life on the Steamer — Aden — Its 
Appearance — " Hell with the fires put out " — An Original Head-dress — Arahs — The 
Cantonments — The Fortifications — Importance of the City — Free Trade — A Foot- 
print of Civilization— The " Gate of Tears "—The Eed Sea— Its Heat— Suez— Transit 
across the Desert — Its Appearance — The Eoad — The Pyramids — The " City of Vic- 
tory " — A Eecommendation for Indian Travel. 

We remained at Bombay over a fortnight. On the eigh- 
teenth of March we bade good-bye to one of om- party, 
Mr. Gibson, the English enguieer, who went to England by 
ship. The rest of us took passages to Cairo, and on the eve- 
ning of the nineteenth we went on board the Peninsular and 
Oriental Company's steamer Ganges, a vessel of 1200 tons, 
propelled by paddle-wheels. As these steamers are intended 
mostly for passengers, their accommodations are ample and 
very comfortable. Every provision is made for hot weather, 
and there are even punkahs over the tables. 

Early on the morning of the twentieth we steamed out of 
the " beautiful bay,"'^ and by noon we had lost sight of land. 
Our fellow-passengers, who proved most agreeable compan- 
ions, were about fifty in number. They were mostly officers 
of the army, from the Bombay and Madras Presidencies, al- 
though some of them had come from the Punjab and extreme 
ISTorth West, from which part of India the easiest way to reach 
England is by way of Mooltan, as there is a line of steamers 
between Kurrachee and Bombay, and steamboats run regu- 
larly on the Indus from Mooltan to Kurracbee. Among the 
passengers were eight or ten ladies and twice that number of 
children. The presence of the latter detracted almost as 

* The name Bombay was given by the Portuguese, and is corrupted from 
two words in their language meaning "good bay." 



Bombay to Cairo. 403 

much from om: comfort as the society of the former added to 
it. The children were almost all attended by their native 
nurses, and few of them spoke any other language than Hin- 
doostanee. 

The crew were Lascars, except the secunnies, or steersmen, 
who were from Manilla. The duty of steering the ship was 
shared by the Chinese crew of the captain's gig. The ser- 
vants were Parsees or Moosulmans, and the stokers were 
stalwart negroes from the African coast, the only men who 
can bear to work in the intense heat of the engine rooms, 
where the Scotch and English engineers sicken and often die, 
although they have no manual work to do, and are only re- 
quired to expose themselves for a few hours each day. The 
officers were, of course, all British, and were most obligmg 
and gentlemanly men. This great variety of nationalities gave 
the quarter-deck a very picturesque appearance on Sunday 
mornings when all hands were mustered, and api^eared washed 
clean for the week, and each dressed in his national costume. 

On Sunday we had divme service in the cabin, attended by 
all the Europeans. The natives, whose work was made as light 
as possible on that day, gathered around the deck in groups, 
listenins: to one of their number who read the Koran or some 
other book, and mending then* tattered clothes. 

On week-days, the regular amusement was single-stick for 
the officers and passengers, but it was generally so hot that 
most of us prefen-ed to sit quietly and read or converse. 

Most of the jDassengers slept on deck at night, as the state- 
rooms below were too hot for comfortable repose. The only 
objection to this plan was that we were waked up soon after 
four o'clock by the washing and holystoning of the decks. 

On the 27th of March we arrived at Aden,^ which is situ- 
ated on the southernmost point of Arabia the Happy, about 11 
hundred miles east of the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, and j^er- 
haps a hundred and fifty miles from Mocha, which is within 
the straits. Aden is under the j\msdiction of the East India 

* The accent of this word is on the last syllable, and it is pronounced ex- 
actly as the two English words a den. 



404 



[ndia. 



Company, and is strongly fortified and garrisoned. It is con- 
sidered one of the most important naval stations in the Eastern 
seas, from wliich circumstance, and its great strength, it has. 
been called the " Gibraltar of the East." 

If the rest of Araby the Blest looks like the country around 
Aden, the name must have been given in the bitterest irony. 
A more desolate scene it would be hard to fiftd than that 
which met our eyes on awaking m the harbour. The shore 
was sand and rocks, the hills were steep ragged masses of 
cinders and scoriae. Truly, as a former traveller has said, it 
looks like the " Region of the Demon of Desolation '* in a 
melodrama. Another tourist declares, with scarcely less truth, 
that it is " Hell with the fires put out." At the harbour is 
the coaling station of the P. and O. Company. There is also 
an hotel where we took lunch, and some bungalows, the resi- 
dences of officials connected with the Steamship Comj^any, 
and of a few traders, among whom is an American who does 
quite a large business with the Arab and African ports. 

The inhabitants are Sumalees and Arabs. The former are a 
wretched, half-starved and ill-formed race. Theii* skins are 
almost black, and they have a habit of covering the head with 
a thick coating of mud, which they keep wet as^ a protection 
against the heat. It is certainly an original head-covering, 
and converts the hair into a mass of tangled red bristles, the 
contrast of which, with their black skins, is considered by 
themselves as one of the most beautiful features in their ap- 
pearance. They wear little or no clothing. The Arabs whom 
I saw were very dark-coloured, and quite an inferior race to 
those who live further north. They are all turned out of the 
town before night, a measure which is necessary to the safety 
of the place, and has been found considerably to reduce the 
number of murders and other crimes which were formerly of 
frequent occurrence. The defences of Aden are so strong as 
to afford entire protection from the surrounding tribes of 
Arabs, who are all hostile. Still it is not considered safe to 
venture many miles into the interior even in the daytime, and 
at night great vigilance has to be observed by the garrison. 

As soon as breakfast was over, we all landed, and, mounting 



Bombay to Cairo. 405 

upon horses or donkeys, proceeded to the cantonments, as the 
fortified town is called. The road was well macadamized, and 
■ led for a couple of miles along the beach. Then we tm-ned 
inland, toward the steep hills, which the road ascended. We 
passed the ridge through an artificial cut, strougly defended by 
two massive gateways of great strength, which form part of 
the line of fortifications surrounding the town. Here we 
found on guard some Indian sepoys, several regiments of 
whom, and one of English soldiers, formed the garrison. 

Further on, w^e came to the city, which has almost wholly 
sprung up since the occupation of this place by the British. 
It is now a town of over twenty thousand inhabitants, but 
contains no remarkable buildings. The larger part of the 
trade of Mocha and other Arab ports now centres in Aden, a 
result which is to be attributed not only to the greater secu- 
rity for life and projDcrty under the English rule, but is also 
largely due to its being a free port, so that the Arab merchant 
escapes the onerous duties of the Turkish Government, and 
the extortions of the customs' officials. 

We remained but a short time at cantonments, where we 
found only a badly kept Parsee hotel. The landlord informed 
us that the only articles of food to be had in the vicinity are 
fish and oysters. Every thing else must be imj^orted, and 
even the water has to be brought in boats for some distance, 
as that found in the place is scarcely drinkable. 

The fortifications of Aden are of great extent, and have 
been perfected at an enormous expense. Bayard Taylor says 
of them : " The skill and genius exhibited in their design im- 
pressed me far more than the massive strength of Gibraltar. 
I never felt more forcibly the power of that civilization v/hich 
follows the Anglo-Saxon race in all its conquests, and takes 
root in w^hatever corner of the earth that race sets foot. Here, 
on the furthest Arabian shore, facing the most savage and in- 
hospitable regions of Africa, were law, order, security, free- 
dom of conscience and of speech, and all the material advan- 
tages which are inseparable from them. Herein consists the 
true power and -grandeur of the race, and the assurance of its 
final supremacy." I have taken the liberty of quoting these 



4o6 India. 

words, because they express so truly my feelings, and what I be- 
lieve ought to be the feelings of every member of the Anglo- 
Saxon race, as he looks upon the progress of that mighty power' 
which is spreading our laws, our liberty, our civilization, and 
our religion into the furthest bounds of the habitable world. 

In the harbour of Aden were several English and Arab 
ships, filled with pilgims going to Mecca from Bombay, or on 
the homeward passage. 

We went on board the Ganges at five o'clock, after taking 
dinner and playing a few games of billiards at the hotel near 
the harbour. 

Before we arose next morning we had passed through the 
Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, the " Gate of Tears," and were with- 
in the Red Sea. 

We were five days running up the Red Sea. The land was 
seldom in sight, but a few islands which we saw were perfectly 
barren, and j)i'esented the appearance of volcanic rocks and 
ashes. The weather was comfortable, as there was a slight 
breeze ahead during the whole time. This was a most delight- 
ful disappointment, as we had been much frightened by what 
we had heard in India of the heat in the Red Sea, where the 
weather is so intensely hot at certain seasons that many ladies 
faint from its efiects, and not a few invalids, returning from 
India with enfeebled constitutions, die from exhaustion. 

Late on the evening of April ist, we arrived at Suez, and 
bade good-bye with regret to the good ship Ganges, and her 
popular commander, Captain Bowen. The passage was as 
pleasant as any I ever made. We had had no rough weather, 
and no rain ; the heat had not been excessive ; every com- 
fort and luxury was provided on the vessel ; our fellow passen- 
gers formed a most agreeable society ; and, altogether, I do 
not know that I ever passed ten days more pleasantly than on 
the steamer " Ganges." 

We went ashore in boats, and as it was dark, of course saw 
nothing of the town. The hotel is a large but uncomfortable 
estabhshment. The first thing we noticed, on entering the 
sitting-room, was the want of the punkah, which hangs from 
the ceiling of every room in India. 



Bombay to Cairo. 407 

From Suez to Cairo the distance is eighty-live miles across 
the desert. The transit is now effected by railway, but at 
that time j)assengers were carried in vcms^ which are two- 
wheeled omnibusses, each holding six persons rather closely 
packed, l^ot more than five vans start together. If there are 
more passengers, a second and a thu'd batch are desj^atched at 
intervals of four hours. The baggage and freight are all car- 
ried on fast camels. 

The preference of seats in these vehicles is determined by 
lot, on board the steamer. By good luck, our party got in 
the first batch, which is an advantage, as the horses are fresh- 
er, and it allows more time in Cairo. 

At midnight we started, at the full speed of four fine Arab 
horses. We were in the first van, which was much the most 
comfortably fitted up, and which, from its position, escaped 
the dust which annoyed the passengers in the vans behind. 

At four o'clock we stopped for twenty minutes at a square 
stone building, where we found a supper spread out. We 
were all, however, too sleepy to partake of it, though iow of 
us had succeeded in actually sleeping, the jolting was so intol- 
erable. 

At eight next morning we stopped for another meal, and 
then mounting again in our close hot van advanced at a gallop 
toward Cairo. 

The desert is sandy and rocky ; but the surface is every- 
where broken, and there are occasionally ravines of some 
depth. The vegetation consists solely of scrub bushes, but on 
the whole it looks quite as green and luxuriant as much of the 
country which I saw in Xorthern India ; though the soil is in 
the one case arid sand, and in the other very fertile, and sus- 
ceptible of high cultivation. 

The road was broad, and had been once well macadamized, 
but when we crossed, it was suffered to fall into disrepair, on 
account of the building of the railway, and was gradually 
being obhterated by the drifting of the sand. 

Every four hours we stopped for some time at a refresh- 
ment station, where we eat Englisli dishes and drank Nile- 



4o8 India. 

water — all brought from Cairo ; from wiiich place all the food 
has to be carried even to Suez. 

Once or twice during the day we saw the mirage, which 
did not deceive my eyes, but several of our party insisted that 
it was water, and would not be convinced of their error till 
we arrived at Cairo. 

About two o'clock we came in sight of the dark green val- 
ley of the Nile. Soon afterwards some of us spied out the 
pyramids far to the left. Then we saw, in the low ground 
before us, the city of Victory, "Al Kahireh," its minarets 
rising above the masses of the trees. Soon we passed a very 
large white buUding which we were told was a new barrack 
for the Pasha's troops, and then passing abruptly from the 
white sands of the desert to the rich green plains of the river, 
the road wound among fertile fields and beautiful gardens. 
The houses, at first sparse, became thicker and thicker, the 
road was crowded with Arabs and other natives, occasionally 
we passed a European carriage, with fine blood horses, then 
(last evidence of approaching civilization) we met numbers of 
English people on donkeys, and finally, at four o'clock, we 
were set down in front of Shepherd's hotel, which looks on a 
large public garden. 

This ends my travels in the East. I had to hurry on to Eu- 
rope, and in three days more was steaming out of Alexandria 
in the Pera, having seen neither the pyramids nor any other 
sight at Cairo. This loss I hope to make up some day, but 
India I shall probably never see again. In fact, few countries 
repay a second visit, and India least of aU. But I can 
confidently recommend it to that large and increasing class 
who are at a loss for a field in which to exercise the travelling 
propensities of our race. Europe has almost become cockney ; 
Egypt and the Holy Land are fast descending to the same level. 
Everywhere you meet with peoj^le speaking your own lan- 
guage, which is of itself disagreeable ; and what is worse, they 
are often not at all the sort of people you want to see. It is 
a bore to be disturbed, in a fit of enthusiasm over some rem- 
nant of antiquity, by a troop of ladies dressed in the last Paris 
fashions, and accompanied by papa, wearing a brown shooting 



Bombay to Cairo. 409 

jacket, and carrying in one hand a foot rule, in the other the 
ubiqiiitons " Murray." In fact, it may be set down for an 
axiom, that the moment Murray pubhshes a guide-book on a 
country, that country is no place for the truly enterprising 
traveller. He flies, like the Indian of America, from the haunts 
of the pale face. 

To such a one India furnishes a refuge. There are so few 
English that all one need know of them are the comforts and 
conveniences which their government provides for his journey. 
The distance is nothing in these days of steam. One may go 
from America to Bombay in six weeks, and within a few 
years New York and Delhi will be not more than forty days 
apart. I have been that time in coming from Liverpool to 
New York. In India one can travel more luxuriously than in 
Europe, throCigh countries where a white man's face is scarcely 
ever seen. The safety is far greater than in the streets of a 
great European or American city ; and the expense will not 
exceed the cost of the same length of time spent in European 
travel. 

18 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

CLIMATE AND HISTOEY OF INDIA 

Size of the Country— Not Thickly Settled— Eainy Season— Cold Season— Hot Season- 
Unfit for a Eesidence of Europeans — Effect on their Health — Origin of the Present 
Inhabitants of India — The Hindoo Conquest — Eemnants of the Aborigines — The 
Four Castes — Changes in Them — Arguments in Favour of this Hypothesis — Ma- 
hommedan Invasions — Tamerlane — Foundation of Mogul Empire by Babur — Akbur 
— Shah Jehan — Aurungzeeb — Decay of the Empire — Eevolts — Maharattas — Eaj- 
poots— Death of Aurungzeeb — The Seekhs— Utter Disorganization— Nadur Shah's 
Invasion — Else of the English — Conduct of the Company toward Conquered Princes 
— Annexation Contrary to the Company's Policy — Character of Native Dynasties — 
Government of Dependent States, 

The greater part of India is an immense plain. The whole 
extent of country, including all the dominions of the East 
India Company, is 1,457,000 square miles, of which more than 
one half is directly under English government, and the 
remainder is more or less subject to British influence. India 
is, therefore, as extensive as all the United States, not inclu- 
ding the Territories. The population of India is now reckoned 
at 180,000,000, which gives 123 inhabitants to the square- mile. 
It cannot, therefore, be considered a thickly settled country, 
while England supports over three hundred inhabitants to the 
square mile, and some states of Europe even more. 

The climate is very hot, and the year is not divided, as in 
the temperate zones, into four seasons, but into three periods, 
each of which has its peculiar characteristics. The "rainy 
season," or monsoon, includes the months of June, July, 
August, and September. It is the season of production, and 
the yield of the land depends upon its regularity, and the 
amount of rain which falls. The quantity of rain is greatest 
and most equable upon the coast, and especially in the west ; 
but in the great valley of the Ganges, and in the Dekkun, it 
happens sometimes that the rains are so slight as to bo in- 



Climate and Hiltory of India. 411 

sufficient for the vegetation of the crops. Great droiiQ;hts 
and famines were thus not of rare occurrence, particularly in 
the valley of the Ganges. The construction of the Ganges 
Canal by the East India Company, has, however, done much 
to remedy the uncertainty of the seasons, by providing for a 
vast system of artificial irrigation, which insures the produc- 
tiveness of many millions of acres of land, the yield of which 
was formerly fearfully precarious. The disastrous results of a 
famine, or short crop, are much greater in India than in any 
other country, as the great mass of the people have no savings 
to rely ujoon ; but, on the contrary, have usually pledged in 
advance the yield of each year, as security for money bor- 
rowed at the beginning of the season. The consideration 
of this fact places in very strong light the benefits conferred 
upon India by the Comj^any in the construction of this canal 
and other great works of irrigation. 

The " cold season" follows the rains, and continues during 
the months of October, November, December, January, and 
February. It is never very cold, to our ideas, since the mean 
temperature^' of January in Calcutta is (i"]"^ \ in Madras, ']']° \ 
and in Bombay, 78°. On the highlands in the southern part 
of India, and in Hindoostan, the. average would be lower at 
this season, and for two or three months it generally freezes in 
the night. No rain falls during the cold season, or the hot 
weather which follows it. 

The " hot season" begins toward the end of February, and 
lasts until the beginning of the rains in June. The average of 
the thermometer, in the month of May, when the heat is the 
greatest, is about 85° in Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras; while 
in ISTew York, Philadelphia, and Boston, the mean temj^erature 
does not exceed 70° during the month of July, which is with 
us the hottest part of the year. The " rainy season" is also 
hot, but the heat is not so extreme as during the prevalence 
of the dry, hot winds from the desert, which blow during the 
hot season, properly so called. 

As India extends over two thousand mxiles of latitude, the 

* That is the mean of the temperature by day and night. 



412 The Indian Empire. 

seasons, of course, vary somewhat. In the north, the cold 
weather lasts longer. On the western coast, the rains are 
more severe. In the south, the hot season occupies a greater 
part of the year. Still, the climate throughout India, except 
upon the mountain ranges, would unfit it for the permanent 
residence of a white race, even were the fevers of the country, 
which depend more on the soil than the climate, put out of 
consideration. Functional derangements of the liver attack 
almost every European resident; and abscess of that vital 
organ sweeps away large numbers of them yearly. ISTo course 
of regimen, or precautions, however stringent, are found to 
give immunity from this disease, although over-indulgence in 
ardent spirits — a vice lamentably prevalent among the Euro- 
pean soldiers, and principally occasioned by the monotony of 
their lives — certainly favours the development of this malady. 
On the other hand, total abstinence from stimulants so debili- 
tates the constitution as to render it peculiarly liable to the 
fevers of the country, which are almost equaUy dangerous. 
The following facts appear by a table of the mortality among 
the European soldiers and officers in India, taken from official 
documents. 

It is estimated that there are always, on the average, 129 
men out of 1,000 in the hospital, and that the name of each 
soldier appears three times a year on the sick-list. As to the 
raortahty, which is in England i| per cent., it is in Bengal 7 
per cent. Those regiments, however, are fortunate, whose 
mortality remains within these limits, for there are others 
which see their entire force renewed within a few years. 
Thus, the 98th regiment, the effective force of which, on dis- 
embarkation, was as high as 718 men, had only 109 men of the 
original force remaining, after eight years' residence. Fright- 
ful as these figures are, they cannot be compared to the mor- 
tahty among the children, of whom entire generations disap- 
pear, leaving only here and there a puny survivor.' The 
following table, borrowed from official documents, and giving 
the mean of twenty years, will convey a tolerably exact idea 
of the annual mortality among the army of the three Presi- 
dencies. 



Climate and Hiitory of India. 413 





BEXGAL. 


MADRAS. 


BOMBAY. 


European Officers, 


29 per mille. 






" Soldiers, 


74 " " 


39 per mille. 


51 per mille. 


Native Sepoys, 


18 " " 


21 " " 


13 " « 



It will be seeii by this table that the Presidency of Madras 
is that in which Euroj)ean soldiers are least tried by the cli- 
mate. In general, ifc is calculated that to replace the losses by 
natural causes alone, European soldiers in India must be 
recruited at the rate of i o j^er cent, per annum. 

The above figures give as accurate information as can be 
obtained with respect to the effect of the climate on Euro- 
peans ; and they are even below the mark, since the European 
soldier is carefully looked after, and guarded from unnecessary 
exposure to the sun or weather ; and when enfeebled by long 
residence on the plains, is removed to one of the sanitaria on 
the mountains, where the bracing aii' soon strengthens his 
constitution, and brings back to his cheek the ruddy glow of 
health. The best commentary upon the influence of the cli- 
mate on Europeans is found in the fact that there is no such 
thmg known as a third generation of Europeans horn in 
India^ and this fact alone would prove that India can never 
become extensively and permanently colonized by the English, 
but can only be, at best, a temporary sphere of action for their 
energy and enterprise. 

The origin of the present inhabitants of India is involved in 
much obscurity. There is almost no authentic history before 
the time of the first Moosulman invasion, about a. d. 950. 
The natives of India diffei* too much in aU respects, in the 
various parts of the country, for us to suppose that they have 
a common descent, while, at the same time, the universal difi 
fusion of the Hindoo religion, and the Sanscrit element in most 
of the languages, would seem, at first sight, according to the 
principles of ethnography, to point to such a common origin. 
The theory which at present finds most favour among those 
who have given attention to the subject, is, that at a remote 
period, there was a great invasion from the North West, of a 
white, Sanscrit-speaking, Hindoo race, who found India peo- 
pled by various independent nations of blacks, speaking differ- 



414 The Indian Empire. 

ent languages, and having diiFerent religions. It is alsc 
believed that the barbarous races of the Bheels, Khonds, 
Kholees, &c., are the descendants of the original races, who 
have continued to the present day unmixed with Hindoo 
blood, and unaffected by Hindoo customs or religion. They 
are in a most degraded state, believe in a low form of pagan- 
ism, and it is with the greatest difficulty that human sacrifices 
have been at length abolished among them by the exertions 
of the Company's agents. 

The Hindoo or Caucasian conquerors were, it is supposed, 
divided into three castes; the Brahmuns, or Priests; the 
Kshatrias, or Warriors ; and the Vaishyas, or Traders. After 
the subjugation of the country, the enslaved populations were 
formed into a fourth caste, the Soodras, or Slaves. The whole 
population was in subjection to the Brahmuns, for whose use 
and behoof, according to the Hindoo system, all things exist. 
The mass of the people, must (if the Institutes of Menoo are 
allowed to be the code then in force) have been in a state of 
abject slaveiy, in comparison with which even the Mahom- 
medan tyranny was freedom. By some means or other, in 
course of time, the two intermediate castes of Kshatrias and 
Vaishyas disappeared, and the Soodras came to play a much 
more important part in the political system; while at the 
same time the relative position of the Brahmuns was lowered, 
probably chiefly on account of intermarriage with lower castes. 
In fact, such an iron desi30tism as that described in the Insti- 
tutes of Menoo, could hardly have been supposed to continue 
unmitigated for the two thousand years during which the 
Hindoo system was probably in force. To support this theory, 
the following arguments are produced: First, the Sanscrit 
language puts it beyond doubt that some of the inhabitants of 
India must have come from the original seat of the Iranian 
races ; but on the other hand the great number of races now 
found in India, the black skin, and other distinguishing marks 
of race, show equally clearly that the mass of the present 
population had not such an origin — while the debased and 
barbarous tribes of Khonds, &c., seem to present a type of 
the original people at the time of the invasion. Again, the 



Climate and Hiftory of India. 413 

number of distinct languages in India is, I think, thirteen. Of 
these, three or four, at least, are of different origin, one from 
the other, and their resemblance to Sanscrit is only on the 
surface — showing that the people who spoke them must have 
been of races distinct in their origin, and also pointing clearly, 
by the intermixture of Sanscrit, to the influence of the tongue 
si^oken by the conquering people. Another very strong argu- 
ment is, the great and universal corruption of the Hindoo 
religion, which, as expounded in the ancient Vedas, was com- 
paratively pure, and, as some say, a monotheism. It is now 
a system of utter idolatry, and the deities who are worshipped 
are not such as would spring from the development or corrup- 
tion of the original religion, but are, in many instances, evi- 
dently introduced from without. The vitality of the aboriginal 
religions, asserting their supremacy over the Brahmunical 
systems, is seen even more in the services by which these new 
gods are worshipped, and in the different classes of men whose 
privilege it is, in many parts of the country, to officiate in the 
temples — a privilege which, by the very essence of true Hin- 
dooisra, is confined to the Brahmuns. So far have these 
changes been carried that, over a large part of India, but 
little of the early Hindoo religious system remains, excepting 
the general respect shown to Brahmuns, the Sanscrit services, 
and the institution of castes. Perhaps the strongest argument 
of all, however, is the degraded position which the Soodras, 
the mass of the population, occupied in the original Hindoo 
system. Their situation was one of such abject, utter degra- 
dation and slavery, that the only reasonable explanation of it 
we can give, is that it was imposed upon them by an irresisti- 
ble force from witlfbut. In other words, that the present 
inhabitants of India, or at least the Hindoo portion of them, 
are not Caucasians, but the descendants of a number of black, 
aboriginal races who were overcome and reduced to bondage 
by the original Hindoo or Caucasian invaders; that these 
invaders were in numbers much inferior to the conquered 
races, and have, in time, become almost swallowed up in them 
— ^but not before the Brahmunical laws, worship and language 



41 6 The Indian Empire. 

had, if not supplanted, at least produced an ineffaceable im- 
pression upon the institutions of the country. 

If the original conquerors of India were men of courage 
and patriotism, their numbers were so small that they failed 
to imj^ress these characteristics upon the nation with which 
they eventually became amalgamated; and if under them 
India was united in one government, it certainly soon became 
broken uj) into a number of separate kingdoms, the want of 
union among which, added to the absence of national sympa- 
thy, and the cowardly character of the natives, made an inva- 
sion a matter of but little difficulty. Accordingly, from the 
time of the first establishment of Mahommedanism in Arabia 
and Persia, we find one force after another sweeping down 
upon the fertile plains of India, devastating, pillaging, and 
laying waste — and generally returning thereafter to the place 
whence they came. The first permanent establishment of the 
Moosulman supremacy was in the year 1206, under Kootub 
ood Deen. From this time forward various Mahommedan 
dynasties succeeded each other upon the throne of Delhi. 
The j)ower of the Emperors was more or less extended accor- 
ding to their energy, and much of their time was occupied in 
crushing the rebellions of their own subordinates in distant 
provinces. Few of them died quietly in their beds ; and 
usurpation was their general title to the imperial power. The 
most remarkable Mahommedan invasion was that of Tamer- 
lane, A. D. 1398. He was a Mogul Tartar chieftain, who sub- 
dued Persia, and finally extended his conquests to India. 
After stripping that country of all the treasures and jewels he 
could find, massacreing hundreds of thousands in cold blood, 
burning Delhi under circumstances of the greatest cruelty and 
treachery, and overthrowing the existing Moosulman dynasty, 
he suddenly returned to Persia. His return was marked by 
the taking of Meeruth, on which occasion he j)ut " every soul 
within it to the sword." His course homeward was distin- 
guished by similar ravages ; " he marked his way with fire and 
sword, leaving anarchy, famine and pestilence behind him." 

After Tamerlane's invasion, there was no fixed government 
until, in 1 5 26, Babur, his descendant of the sixth generation, 



Climate and Hiitory of India. 417 

who was the Sooltan of Cabool, again invaded India, and 
founded the dynasty which has been ever since on the throne. 
Under the Emj^eror Akbur, who ruled from 1556 to 1605, the 
Moosuhnan Empire in India reached its greatest extent. Ak- 
bur's sway extended over all that we now call India, and durinc; 
his reign even the most remote provinces were submissive to 
the central authority at Delhi. Under the grandson of Akbur, 
Shah Jehan, whose reign began in 1627, the Empire attained 
its greatest glory, and it was by this monarch that many of 
the principal architectural remains of India were erected. Still 
the reign of Shah Jehan was far from peaceful and undisturbed. 
The fabric of Mahommedan supremacy gave evident tokens 
of how slight a foundation it possessed. The usual precautions 
which the Emperor had taken, on ascending the throne, by 
putting to death his brother and all the other members of the 
imperial family, except his own descendants, di^l not suffice to 
prevent attempts at usurpation. He j^assed several years in 
endeavouring to subdue conflicting rebelUons organized by his 
sons, whom he had made viceroys. The third son, Aurung- 
zeeb, after a double treachery to his father and to one of his 
revolted brothers, whose rebellion he had sworn to su^Dj^ort, at 
length obtained the throne in 1658, and confined his father in 
a prison, where he dragged out the last years of his life. Au- 
rungzeeb's reign lasted fifty years. Under him, the Empire, 
although outwardly as splendid as ever, became thoroughly 
pervaded by that incurable decay which, after his death, de- 
stroyed in a few years the vast and blood-cemented fabric of 
the Mogul power in India. Even during his lifetime disorgani- 
zation was prevented only by 4iis constant vigilance and the 
commanding power of his master-mind. After seizing the im- 
perial power, Aurungzeeb was for some time annoyed by his 
brothers, who continued to support by arms their pretensions 
to the Musnud. Finally, however, he overcame all ojDposition, 
and rid himself of his troublesome relatives by summary exe- 
cutions. 

It is during the reign of Aurungzeeb that we first hear of 
the Maharattas, who were then a warlike tribe of Hindoos 
dwelling in the highlands of the west of India, south of the 

18* 



41 8 The Indian Empire. 

^N'urbudda. Under the able command of a chieftain called 
Seewajee, they began that com^se which finally ended in the 
conquest of almost the whole of India, and the total prostration 
of the Mogul 230wer. But the Maharattas were not the only 
enemies who troubled the peace of Aurungzeeb's reign. The 
Afghans revolted, set up a king, and coined money in his 
name. The Kajpoots, too, a nation of warriors occupying the 
country between the Jumna and N^urbudda, and that region 
which was afterwards erected by the British into the kingdom 
of Oude, organized a formidable insurrection. And to crown 
the misfortunes of the Emperor, his youngest son, Akbur, took 
advantage of the absence of his father from the capital, to as- 
sume the reins of government, and caused himself to be pro- 
claimed sovereign. The young prince, however, did not long 
hold out, and was forced to take refuge among the Maharattas. 
The Rajpoot war, also, was concluded after some years. But 
the Maharatta j)ower kept assuming more and more formidable 
proportions. Their original and ablest chieftam had died, his 
successor had been tortured and murdered at Delhi, but they 
found other leaders, and renewed their attacks in larger num- 
bers and with greater strength. The government of Aurung- 
zeeb had long lost much control over the Dekkun and southern 
India, which had consequently been broken up into numerous 
petty principahties. These became an easy prey to the Maha- 
rattas, whose power now assumed such threatening dimensions 
that the Emperor himself took the field against them, -with an 
army, which, with its attendants, is said greatly to have ex- 
ceeded one milhon of souls. The imperial force was, however, 
everywhere unfortunate, and the anxieties of Aurungzeeb were 
increased by renewed hostilities from the Kajpoots, and the 
revolt of a Hindoo tribe called Jats. The successes of the 
Maharattas continued in the Dekkun, into which country the 
Emperor had advanced to meet them, and the last act of 
Aurungzeeb's life was the successful conduct of a dangerous 
retreat to the city of Aurungabad, in what are now the ter- 
ritories of the Nizam. In the twelve years succeeding Au- 
rungzeeb's death, five sovereigns held, one after another, the 
imperial power, now everywhere broken by the dissensions 



Climate and Hitlory of India. 410 

among the Maliommedan rulers, by the greatly extended 
ravages of the Maharattas, and by the rise, in the vicinity of 
Labor, of a new and formidable tribe, that of the Seekhs. 
The formation of this body is due to a rehgious enthusiast 
called Xanik, who pretended to have received a new revela- 
tion, but the Seekhs first received a definite political system, 
and were expanded into the proportions of a nation, under a 
leader known as Gooroo Govind. Among them all distinc- 
tions of caste were abolished, and Moosulmans were placed 
in an equal position Tvith Hindoos. All Seekhs were com- 
pelled constantly to go armed ; they were not allowed to cut 
or shave the hair on the head or body, and were prohibited 
from wearing on the head any article which had been sewed. 
ThesLiperiority of the Brahmuns was still, however, preserved, 
and the cow retained all the sanctity attributed under the 
Hindoo system to that animal. The incursions of the Seekhs 
were marked by greater barbarity than even those of the 
Maharattas. The only object of the latter was booty. They 
tortured the inhabitants of cities to obtain a knowledge of 
their secret hiding places for property, and committed other 
ravages only that they might force the conquered countries to" 
submit to their demand of the chout, or fourth part of the 
revenue. As long as this was punctually j^aid, it insured im- 
munity. The Seekhs, however, never made any such com- 
promises. Elphinstone says, " They destroyed the mosques, 
and butchered the moollahs ; their rage was not restrained by 
any considerations of religion, or by any mercy for age or sex : 
whole towns were massacred with wanton barbarity ; and even 
the bodies of the dead were dug up and thrown out to the 
beasts and birds of prey." 

While the Empire was m this distracted condition, a new 
and more terrible invasion from without came to draw away 
men's attention from their internal difficulties, and to complete 
the destruction of the Mogul power. 

Nadur Shah, one of the princes of Persia, had usurped the 
throne of that country, and put out the eyes of the former 
sovereign. He now directed his attention to India, and in 
1738 began his march upon Delhi. The broken power of the 



420 The Indian Empire. 

Emperor offered but slight opposition, and the imperial city 
was again in the hands of a foreign invader. His occupation 
of Delhi was attended by a general massacre of the inhabi- 
tants. The rich were put to torture to obtain their money, 
and the world-renowned treasures of the Mogul court were 
plundered and carried away by the conqueror. His stay was 
less than two months, and the amount of property which he 
took away with him is estimated at from £32,000,000 to 
£125,000,000. 

The Mogul power was now completely broken. The subse- 
que'nt history of India is one scene of invasions, revolts, and 
contests between the Afghans and the various warlike tribes 
whose origin has been spoken of above. The deputies and 
viceroys of the Emperor generally proclaimed their indepen- 
dence. The Maharattas were more than ever powerful, and 
extended their conquests over Hindoostan. All law and order 
disappeared, and the condition of the mass of the population 
must have been most wretched. 

Affairs were in this condition when the British first ap- 
peared upon the field of action. Their conquests were direc- 
ted against these revolted dependants of the Emperor; against 
robber chieftains who had made themselves the kings of a day j 
and against marauding bands like the Pindarrees, who came 
and were gone, not attempting to establish any government, 
but leaving smoking ruins, death and devastation wherever 
they had. passed. 

The throne of Delhi was entirely prostrate, and but for the 
efforts of the British would no doubt soon have been perma- 
nently abolished. It was, however, found more convenient to 
use the Emperor's name. For the advantage which that gave 
them, the Company must be allowed to have made an ample 
return in the restoration of the imperial dignity, and the 
enormous pension of £150,000 sterling, per annum, which has 
ever since been punctually paid. 

The substantial power of the Padshah was never restored ; 
in fact, such an act would have been equivalent to again 
plunging the unhappy countries over which his nominal rule 
extended, into all the miseries from which they had just es- 
caped. 



Climate and Hiilory of India. 421 

The power of the revolted wuzeers, and of the chieftains of 
the Maharattas and other tribes, was, however, confirmed by 
the Company. The Wuzeer of Oude, who had profited by the 
weakness of the last Emperors to proclaim his mdependence, 
imder the title of Nawab, was raised by the English to the 
royal dignity, with the view of oj^posing a strong and inde- 
pendent power against any attempts that might be made by 
the Emperor of Delhi to regain the position of supremacy once 
held by his house. The course of the Company in this in- 
stance is an example of what has always been their policy. 
Annexation, as being costly, hazardous, and likely to occasion 
protracted and expensive wars, has always been shunned. 
The Company has avoided war, when possible, knowing that 
peace is, in a commercial point of view, more desirable than 
any extension of their possessions. "When, however, m the 
course of events, hostilities became necessary, either for self 
preservation, or fou the i^rotection of their territories and sub- 
jects, no greater exhibition of force was resorted to than the 
necessities of each case absolutely required. Whenever if 
was possible, the ruler of a conquered country was left on the 
guddee^ and his j^ower was put on a much firmer base than it 
had ever previously rested on. In many instances the rank 
and authority of conquered princes were raised and extended 
by the Honourable Company with a view of securmg powerful 
allies against other nati^'e rulers, and at the same time avoid- 
ing the trouble, expense, and responsibility of administering 
the newly-conquered country. These princes, it should be re- 
membered, were seldom of old dynasties. They were mostly 
adventurers, or the sons of adventurers.^' They had attained 
their position by fraud and violence, and were liable at any 
moment to be deposed by similar means. When, therefore, 
their power became vested in the Company by the right of 
conquest, it would have been perfectly just and equitable had 

* Like Hydur Ali, who was a common soldier ; the original Gaikwar, who 
was a cow-herd ; the first Peshwa, who was of equally humble origin ; and 
those two powei-fiil princes known as Sindia and Holkar, who were robber- 
chieftains of the Maharattas. 



422 The Indian Empire. 

they been absolutely deposed and their country annexed to 
the other British dominions. This course would also have 
been much the most advantageous for the conquered coun- 
tries, and has been, in fact, the recent policy of the Indian 
government. In the earlier years of the Company's rule, how- 
ever, they were not aware of their own power, and sought, by 
a consistent course of concession, and the enlistment on their 
side of native interest, to strengthen a series of conquests so 
extensive and so rapid as to be bewildering. An additional 
motive agamst annexation was, that before the real relations 
between a native ruler and his subjects were understood, the 
latter were supposed to entertain toward their princes some 
sentiments of affection and loyalty, which, as well as their feel- 
ings of patriotism, would, it was thought, be shocked by a vio- 
lent transfer of the sceptre. The wonderful success of the Eng- 
lish, and the consolidation of their power which is the result 
of a wise and uniform administration, have, removed the first 
objections to annexation. The discovery that a native prince 
governs as a brutal master tyrannising over cringing slaves, 
has dispelled any dread of opposition from the fidelity of the 
native population to their old masters ; while the great devel- 
oi^ment of those jjarts of the country which have been an- 
nexed, the rise in the value of property, the peace and pros- 
perity which the subjects of the Company have enjoyed, when 
contrasted with the insecurity, anarchy, and misrule of all the 
native territories, point out annexation as the most profitable, 
if not the only truly lenient and benevolent policy. 

A great deal of nonsense has been talked about these native 
princes, who have been treated with only too great clemency 
and consideration by the Honourable Company. In cases 
where it was deemed imprudent to intrust them. with the 
management of their old dominions, they were always pen- 
sioned with the greatest liberality, and left at perfect liberty 
to live where and how they pleased, within certain limits of 
country — a treatment widely different from the trampling to 
death by elephants, the tortures, or the confinement in an iron 
cage which would have been their lot had their conquerors 
been natives. In cases where the old ruler was left in power, 



1 



Climate and Hiftory of India. 423 

he was usually placed in an independent position. Tributes 
were sometimes imposed ; sometimes not. The Company's 
government only retained the privilege of regulating the suc- 
cession to the throne (a power whicli was generally exercised 
only to interfere in behalf of the regular successor against an 
attempted usurpation) ; and merely required that the native 
sovereign should govern with some justice, and maintain a 
certain amount of order ; to secure which, and keep him in 
mind of his position, a British resident Agent, usually called 
simply " the Resident," was maintained at every native court. 
This officer had no power but such as resulted from his per- 
sonal character and mfluence. The subject princes were also 
required to keep up a certain army, which was to be partly 
officered by Englishmen, and to the services of which the 
Company were, under certain circumstances, entitled. No 
terms could be more liberal than these, and they were always 
scrupulously observed by the Company. The right, whicli 
was of course inherent in the Honourable Company, to resume 
the sovereign power which had been once in their hands, in 
case of the non-performance by the native princes of their part 
of the agreement, was never enforced, except where, as m the 
case of Oude, the degradation of the court, the lawlessness of 
the capital, and the anarchy which prevailed throughout the 
country, were not only ruining the subject state itself, but 
threatened the peace and security of the adjacent territories 
of the Company. Even in such cases, the deposed monarchs 
were treated with a lavish hberality to which their previous 
merits gave them very little claim. 

Never has there been a conquest more un^\allingly made 
than was that of the English in India. The Company was at first 
exclusively mercantile, and trade was their only object. Every 
war was costly, diminished their revenue, and lowered their 
dividends. Accordingly we find the Board of Directors again 
and agjain commanding: the Governors in India not to allow 
themselves to be dragged into war, and to endure anything 
in preference to taking up arms. But their wishes were over- 
ruled by Providence. The Indian government was forced^' 

* The wai'S in Afghanistan and Sindh, if exceptions to this rule, cannot be 



4-24 The Indian Empire. 

into one contest after another, until, in less than one hundred 
years from then- first great battle, under Lord Clive, at Plas- 
sey, they found themselves masters of the land from Cape 
Comorin to the Himalayas, and from Burmah to Afghanistan. 
Henceforth India is delivered from tyranny, anarchy, and 
devastating invasions. The degrading sway of the Brahmuns, 
and the desjootism of the Mahommedan rulers, are alike abol- 
ished. It is to be hoped that a few years will see the remains 
of the last native governments wiped away, and that India 
will be governed entirely by the beneficent rule of a Christian 
people ; under whom alone civilization can be introduced, the 
immense resom'ces of the country developed, and the Hindoos 
enjoy that peace and freedom to which they are entitled by 
centuries of oppression and sufiering. 

laid at the door of the Company. Like the annexation of Oude, they were 
forced upon the East India Company by the British Ministry through the 
Board of Control, and were entirely acts of the Home Government, although 
conducted in the name of the Company, and at its expense. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

ENaLISH aOYERNMENT IN INDIA. 

Abolition of Company's Trading Privileges — Board of Control— Government of India 
Nominally in the Hands of the Directors, but really under the Control of the Min- 
istry — Civil Servants Ajjpointed by Examination — Objections to this System — Unfit- 
ness of Natives for Government Employ — Government in India — District Magistrates 
— Salaries — Character of the Civil Service — Native Employees — Uncovenanted Ser- 
vice — Universal Lying — Instances from Eeal Life — Kules of Testimony — Civil Law 
of India — Mild Criminal Code — Thugs — Dukoitee — Religious Murderers and Robbers 
— Infanticide and other Crimes — Suttee and Human Sacrifices — Poisoners — Pecu- 
liarities of Crime in India — Thieves — Stealing a Sheet from under a Man Sleeping — 
Precautions — Disregard of Capital Punishment — Black Water — Blowing from Guns 
— Model Prisons — Caste in Jail — Smoking — Licentiousness — Discourteous Manners 
of English to Native Gentlemen — What is a Gentleman? — Diftlculties of Magistrates 
—Native Police — Their Corruption and Tyranny — Torture in India — Bribery and 
Corruption — The Remedy — Causes of the Moral Degradation of the Hindoos. 

Up to 1833 the East India Company had contiuued to be a 
commercial company, ruling India in the name of the Great 
Mogul. At that time the Company's commercial power was 
taken away by the English Parliament, on the occasion of the 
renewal of their charter/^ This measure was, commercially, 
of the greatest advantage to India, but conferred upon that 
country even greater benefits indirectly, by leaving the Com- 
pany's servants free to devote their entire attention to gov- 

* Under the charter of 1193, the first provision was made for private 
enterprise, and the Company were obhged to provide 6,000 tons of shipping 
every year for the accommodation of private traders. At the next renewal 
of the charter in 1814, the Company lost the monopoly of the Eastern trade, 
except that of tea. The unrestricted competition of private capital in the 
India trade soon took most of the business out of the hands of the Company, 
while the whole amount of business done was, by it, largely increased, as 
appears by tliis table : 

Exports by Company. By Private Traders. Total. 

1814. £826,658 £1,048,132 £1,874,690 

1832. £149,193 £3,601,093 ' £3,750,286 



426 The Indian Empire. 

ei'Dment, the development of the resources of the country, and 
internal improvements. The latter had been so much neglected 
that, in 1825, it is said, there did not exist twenty miles of 
carriage road in Bengal. 

In the year 1833 the government of India was in fact taken 
out of the hands of the East India Company ; or rather they 
remained ,the agents for its administration, but all the higher 
attributes of sovereignty were withdrawn from them. The 
royal Government assumed the responsibihty of defraying 
the interest on the capital stock, guaranteeing to all stock- 
holders I oj- j)er cent, annual dividend, and retaining the privi- 
lege of buying up all the stock, or what portions they pleased, 
at the rate of £200 for every £100 of stock. 

In return for this assumption of responsibility, the king's 
Government exercised a controlling influence in the affair^ 
of the Company. As early as 1784 a royal supervision had 
been exercised over the Indian government by means of a 
Board of Control. This Board has since acquired a supreme 
influence in all more important matters. The Board of Con- 
trol consists of six members, appointed by the Crown, wdth a 
President, who is always a member of the Cabinet, and dis- 
charges the duties of Secretary of State for India. Every 
resolution or despatch of the Board of Directors must go for 
approval before the Board of Control, who have the power 
of sending the orders to India, or withholding them at will. 
In cases where the Board of Control and the Directors dis- 
agree as to what course it is proper to take under certain cir- 
cumstances, it is the former who decide. In fact, the only 
unrestricted power left to the Directors by the last amend- 
ment to their charter in 1853, is that of appointing cadets to 
the army and a few of the higher officers of government in 
India. All orders and despatches continue to be in the name 
of the Board of Directors, but, in reality, for many years, the 
entire direction and responsibility of Indian policy has been 
in the hands of Parliament, by means of the Ministry, of 
whom the President of the Board of Control is one.* The 

* The Ministry may send to India any despatch or order that they please, 
either in the name of the Board of Directors or of its Secret Committee. In 



Engliili Government in India. 427 

details of administration always, however, have continued to be 
principally entrusted to the Board of Directors, at least so far as 
they were matters for the consideration of the home authorities. 

The whole appointment of the civil servants for India was 
formerly vested ii^ the Directors, but this valuable privilege 
was taken away by the last charter, and they are now chosen 
according to the result of competitive examinations, to which 
all British subjects are admissible. The new system is an 
experiment, Avith respect to the success of which those who 
are best informed about India are most distrustful. Under 
the new system many men must be appointed whose antece- 
dents are not well known, and who, when they arrive in India, 
and are placed in charge of large districts, far removed from 
all supervision and control, may fall a prey to those numerous 
temptations by which the Indian official is surrounded. 
Against these the most powerful barrier was the honour of 
his family, which every civilian appointed under the old system 
feels to be dependent on his conduct in a service, in the ranks 
of w^hich he probably has more than one relation, and to many 
of the other members of which he is personally known. 

Another great objection to the new arrangement is, that 
under it natives are eUgible to high civil employs ; and will 
probably obtain them, as they have generally quite ability 
enough to prepare themselves for passing any examination 
which may be appointed. It is a sad fact that the natives 
are wholly unfit for any position of responsibility in which 
they are not under constant European supervision. In con- 
nection with this I cannot express my own views, and those 
of all well-informed persons with whom I have conversed, 
more clearly than in the ^vords of M. De Valbezen. After 
remarking upon the apparent injustice and abuse of power, in 
the systematic exclusion of natives from all high employs, he 
goes on to say : " Besides, the injustice is more apparent than 

the former case the Directors must have seen the despatch or order, but cannot 
veto it ; in the latter they need not even have seen it. By means of this extra- 
ordinary system, the Company has been made responsible to pubhc opinion 
for many acts done in their name, but which were entirely opposed to their 
wishes and pohcy. 



428 The Indian Empire. 

real : except infinitesimal exceptions, it must be acknowledged 
that it TTonld be impossible to find natives capable of worthily 
filling the higher employs. Even had they the energy, the in- 
tellectual powers which are necessary, they would be destitute 
of that love of truth, that high respect for^duty, that deUcate 
sentiment of honour, which are as necessary to the magistrate 
as to the military officer. Whoever has the least experience 
of their character will grant this without hesitation." An 
American missionary, well known in another capacity among 
the religious community of this city, and whose views are in 
every way entitled to the highest respect, expresses even 
stronger opinions when speaking of the capacity of the Hin- 
doos for self-government, and, by implication, of their fitness 
for being entrusted with the government of others. He says : 
" They are an ignorant, depraved, and heathen people ; and 
yet both English and American writers speak of them as if 
they could be governed in the same way as British subjects or 
American citizens. A greater mistake it would be difficult to 
make ; and our meaning will be clearer to most of our read- 
ers when we say that the coloured people of this country, 
free and bond, are a hundred-fold better prepared for self- 
government than are the great mass of the Hindoos." 

At the head of the government in India is the Governor 
Genera], whose residence is at Calcutta, and who has the com- 
plete control of the whole administration. He is assisted 
by a council of four members, who compose, with him, the In- 
dian Legislature. All their acts, however, are subject to the 
royal approval. Under the Governor General are the Lieuten- 
ant Governor of Bengal, the Lieutenant Governor of the ISTorth 
Western Provinces, who lives at Agra, and the Commissioners 
of the Punjab and Oude. The Governors of Madras and 
Bombay, though possessing legislative powers for their resi^ec- 
tive Presidencies, are aliso inferior to the Governor General. 

The subordinate administrative duties are in the hands of 
the Magistrate and Collector of each district. In Bengal each 
magistrate has under his charge a district of three thousand 
two hundred square miles, and one million of souls, on the 
average. Within this district he has the entire care of the 



Englifli Government in India. 429 

police, roads, &c., and also limited judicial powers. As this is 
quite as mucli as one man can attend to, he is assisted by a 
Collector, who regulates all the financial business of govern- 
ment, determines the assessment of land, restrains exactions 
of zemindars, and has the general fiscal charge of the district. 
In the smaller Presidencies, the duties of collector are exercised 
by the magistrate. Besides these officials, there are the judges, 
of whom there are, on the average, two to every three dis- 
tricts. Their principal occupation is to hear appeals from the 
native judicial officers, whose powers have lately been so much 
extended that almost all suits come before them in the first 
instance. 

Both magistrates and collectors are aided by European 
deputies and assistants. The judges, however, except in Bom- 
bay, have only native subordinates. In addition to these 
officers, the civil service also comprehends the special depart- 
ments of the customs, the salt excise, and the opium mono- 
poly, which give employment to many Europeans. 

The whole number of European employees of all sorts, in 
the civil service, properly so called, is under nine hundred. 
Their pay is on the most liberal scale. The salaries of magis- 
trates and collectors range from $6,000 to $19,000 per annum, 
and those of the judges average |i 5,000. These amounts are 
found, however, not to be too large, and very few fortunes 
are made in the Company's service. In the earliest days of 
the British rule in India, the salaries were very low, and the 
Company's servants were too often tempted to neglect the 
interests of their masters for private speculations, by which 
immense fortunes were amassed, and to accept bribes in the 
discharge of the governmental duties with which they were 
entrusted. The Company soon, however, found it their inter- 
est to attract men of a higher class to their service, and, at the 
same time, to put them out of the reach of these temptation?, 
by ample salaries. Accordingly, the salaries were fixed on a 
liberal scale, toward the end of the last century, and have 
continued almost the same since that time. The present civil 
servants are men of liberal education and high character ; 
their labours arc onerous and irksome ; the difficulties they 



430 The Indian Empire. 

meet with in doing justice, almost insnrmountable ; the temp- 
tations to which they are exposed, great and continual ; but 
since the time when the service was placed on its present foot- 
ing, and men of standing were attracted into its ranks, proba- 
bly no body of government oificials in the world have ever 
been so entirely free from every taint of bribery or dishonour- 
able conduct. The best testimony to the character of the 
European agents of government is found in the opinions of 
the natives themselves, who look upon an Englishman as a 
paragon of almost impossible uprightness and probity, and 
among whom a common expression for absolute truth is, " Un- 
gleeze kee bat" — an Englishman's word. As their opinions, 
however, cannot be presented here, I take much pleasure in 
quoting the words of M. De Valbezen, who was intimately 
acquainted with his subject, and whose expressions are the 
more valuable, as the policy of England is, in many cases, far 
from meeting his approval. After remarking upon the very 
different life led by the present officials in India, from that 
luxurious existence enjoyed by their " old Indian" predeces- 
sors, he goes on to account for the fact, that, even with their 
present moderate style of living, their apparently ample sala- 
ries scarcely cover their expenses. He attributes this to the 
fact that now-a-days one of the first aims of every civilian is 
to get married, and that the great expenses of a family in In- 
dia, the necessity for sending his wife and children to the 
Himalayas during the hot weather, the expense of sending the 
children to England to be educated, and the large establish- 
ment which a man of family has to keep up, amount to more 
than the sums which were formerly s]3ent in costly wines, lux- 
urious dinners, and gambhng. He then goes on to say : — 
" The high salaries* of India, which have occasioned so many 
attacks, and caused so much envy, furnish doubtless the means 
of providing comfortably for the expenses of a family, but 
nothing beyond. They are, besides, the price of severe and 
incessant labour, and if all those who cry out against the am- 

* The average salaries of the nine hundred civil servants are £1,000 per 
annum. This does not include the salaiy of the Governor General, or a few 
other of the highest magistrates. 



Englifli Government in India. 431 

pie pay of the civil service could see, close at hand, the life 
of the exile in an unhealthy climate, with its profound ennu% 
their envy for those who w^ear these gilded but heavy chains 
would doubtless be considerably dmiinished. We are not so 
extreme in our admiration of the Honourable Company's civil 
service, that we can see in it no defects. We do not doubt 
that its education can be made more perfect ; that some of its 
members have given sad examples of corruption and incapa- 
city, and that others affect the extravagant airs of the Grand 
Mogul. We only say, on the average, as a body, it is equal 
to its lofty mission ; that never have more upright magistrates, 
more disinterested collectors, more independent judges presi- 
ded over the destiny of the native population ; that, in one 
word, the very great majority of the civil servants worthily 
represent in India one of those nations which march in the 
van of European civilization." 

Beside the European civil servants, there are an immense 
number of native officials in the employ of the Honourable 
Company. They do pretty well as long as they are under the 
immediate eye of their European superiors, but unfortunately 
cannot be trusted further than they can be overlooked. As, 
however, it is impossible for the very limited number of Eu- 
ropean civilians to oversee all the minutiae of administration, 
the natives have very considerable opportunities of oppres- 
sion, extortion, and receiving bribes, and do not neglect 
them. 

The total want of character among the native officials has 
caused the employment by government of numerous Euro- 
peans, mostly sprung from the humbler ranks, and many of 
them taken from the English troops in India. This branch of 
the administration is known as the ".uncovenanted service," 
in opposition to the regular civil service described above, 
which is called the " covenanted service" on account of the 
regular agreement existing between each member of it and 
the government. The members of the uncovenanted service 
are generally employed to oversee the construction of the 
public works, inspect the roads, and superintend native con- 
tractors and workmen. Thev are a body daily growing in 



432 The Indian Empire. 

importance. Their pay is not regular, but each man makes 
the best bargain he can for himself. 

The difficulties which the magistrates meet with in the ad- 
ministration of the government, from the unrehability of their 
native subordinates, are almost incredible ; and the numerous 
acts of injustice, cruelty, and oppression committed in their 
name, which they know to exist, but can seldom redress, are a 
constant source of painful reflection. 

The administration of justice meets with even greater obsta- 
cles from that total disregard of truth which characterises the 
native. In India, no disgrace attaches to untruth, and it is 
not uncommon to hear a man say, "I was lying," without 
ever suspecting that such an admission at all impUcated his 
honour. In the courts of law, the most sacred oaths, on the 
Koran, Ganges water, or in whatever form they were sup- 
posed to be most binding on the conscience of the deponent, 
having proved totally ineffectual in securing the least regard 
to veracity, have been all abolished ; which has this advan- 
tage, that it is now possible for witnesses to give testimony 
without peijuring themselves. In every bazar in the country, 
any number of men may be hired to testify to anything, for 
the small charge of two anas, (6 cents) ; and I was told by a 
magistrate who had held office for over fifteen years, that in 
all that time he did not believe he had ever heard a single 
deposition which was entirely true^ and that such depositions 
as contained any large admixture of truth were the few excep- 
tions in the great mass of evidence, which was entirely false. 
I was much amused by a conversation I had at Agra, with a 
high- caste Brahmun, whose occupation was that of moonshee, 
or native clerk understanding English. He was a very well 
informed person, and had most gentlemanly manners. We 
had been talking about the reverence shown to the cow in the 
Hindoo system, and he had been explaining to me by what 
process of reasoning he came to look upon the cow as his 
mother, and to regard the butchery of that animal as some- 
thing worse than matricide. We then went on to speak of 
the native character generally, and I mentioned the habit of 
lying as, in my opinion, the " original sin," from which most 



Englifli Government in India. 433 

of their other defects sprang. He denied that untruthfulness 
was as general as I supposed it to be. Whereupon, I asked 
him if there was any one whom he would believe rather than 
his father. He said there was not. On my inquiring which 
was the most sacred oath among the Hindoos, he said, an oath 
given with the hand in Ganges water. I then said, " Xow 
suppose, Moonshee, your own father were to swear, with his 
hand in Ganges water, that a certain statement was true, 
with regard to which you knew it was his mterest to deceive 
you, would you believe him ?" The moonshee at first equivo- 
cated, and would not give a direct reply. On my pressing 
him, however, for a straightforward answer, he at last said : 
"I think, sir, I should wish for corroborative testimony." 
The following occurrence was brought to light in the Suddur 
Adawlut Court in Calcutta. "A darogah (native chief of po- 
lice) had given mformation of a crime to the district magis- 
trate, adding, that the most active researches had failed in 
putting him on the track of the perpetrators of the offence. 
The magistrate, who suspected the probity of his subordinate, 
announced to him that if in ten days the criminals were not 
discovered, he should be suspended from his functions. Ko 
result having been obtained after the fixed delay, the threat 
was put in execution, and the darogah was temporarily 
replaced by an inferior ofiicer, whose zeal was stimulated by 
the promise of the late darogah's situation if he succeeded in 
discovering the guilty j^arties. The new functionary was not 
more lucky than his predecessor ; but, rather than renounce 
the place promised to his ambition, he caused a reward of a 
hundred rupees (850) to be ofiered to whoever would avow 
himself guilty of the murder in question. Two beings, in ap- 
pearance human — in truth, I cannot call them two men — 
presented themselves to accept the terms offered ; but, on ac- 
count of the competition, the reward was diminished one-half 
Hereupon, the police ofiicer invented a narrative in harmony 
with the testimony of the witnesses. The two individuals 
made their avowals before the most considerable inhabitants 
of the village, and the report of the inquest was sent, together 
with the accused, before the magistrate, who in recompense 

19 



434 The Indian Empire. 

appointed his faithless subordinate to the post of the deposed 
darogah. As it had been agreed, in the conditions of the bar- 
gain, that the accused should renew their confession before 
the magistrate, they related to him fliithfuUy, anew, all the 
details of their imaginary crime ; then, believing themselves 
to have honourably fulfilled all the terms of the contract, 
they retracted all their previous testimony, when examined 
before the district judge, denied their previous confessions, 
and declared that all they had done was to sign certain 
papers written by the head-man of the village, and that 
numerous witnesses could testify to their ignorance of the 
contents of the papers signed by them. These witnesses, 
whose favourable testimony had, no doubt, been bought by 
the accused beforehand, were summoned to the assizes ; but, 
whether they were bribed or intimidated by the darogah, 
they only confirmed the facts elicited on the inquest ; adding, 
that they had heard the avowal of the crime from the mouth 
of the accused. A condemnation to death terminated the 
trial. It was only then that the convicts avowed their agree- 
ment with the darogah, and were able, luckily for themselves, 
to bring witnesses to prove that they were in the district jail 
when the crime was committed." Agam : " Some years ago, a 
rich farmer of the Dooab was accused of having killed a native 
in a quarrel. Twenty-five witnesses swore, in open court, that 
they had seen the accused strike the fatal blow; thirty others 
swore that at the time when the murder was committed, they 
had seen the accused at a village twenty-five miles off. So 
far, there is nothing extraordinary in the story — the same 
thing occurs every day, in every court in India. The amusing 
part of the occurrence was, that on both sides there was an 
equal amount of perjury and lying. The farmer had not 
committed the murder, but, on the other hand, he was not, at 
the time of its commission, in the village twenty-five miles off, 
but in his own dwelling, a few steps from the theatre of the 
ciime." I forget the details of numerous other and similar 
occurrences which I heard of in India. Almost any one who 
has lived in that country has had many such cases brought to 
his notice, and he is lucky, indeed, if he is not made the victim 



Englilli Government in India. 43c 

of the hired perjurers whom the natives do not hesitate to 
employ in their legal affairs. 

Notwithstanding this state of public morality, the rules of 
evidence in the courts of law are the same as in Eno-laod, viz : 
that all testimony 7nust he presumed true^ until iwoved false. 
The principal hardship of this rule is experienced when an 
Englishman is sued by a native, since the latter will bring as 
many witnesses as are necessary to prove his case, while the 
former is deprived of such facilities by conscientious scruples. 
The rigour of the English rule of testimony is, however, much 
modified by the discretionary power assumed by the magis- 
trate, ^dthout wdiich he would find it difiicult to extract the 
few grains of truth from the mass of conflicting evidence daily 
2:»resented to his notice. 

The civil law has been left nearly as it was found at the 
conquest. The Koran is the rule for the Moosulmans; the 
Institutes of Menoo form the ground-work of the Hindoo 
common law. The position of the other native communities, 
as Parsees and native Christians, has been recently settled, 
and they are subject to the English law only. The only 
changes of importance that have been made in the native civil 
law^, are the following : First, a provision that a change in 
religion shall not affect a man's civil standing. By the old 
Hindoo law, a man lost caste on conversion to Mahommedan- 
ism or Christianity, and became civilly dead, his property 
going to his heirs. Second, the abolition of slavery, as a 
social status, recognised by the courts. Third, permission 
given to widows to marry. By the old Brahmunical law, a 
widow, though she might be (and many of them were) not 
over nine years old, could never marry again, but remained 
with her parents, the drudge of the household, a burden to 
the family, and treated contemptuously by all. A very large 
number of them became prostitutes. The evil of the old law 
can hardly be aj^preciated unless we remember that in India 
marriage is not an excej^tional state, but every tnan is married, 
generally when a child ; that a large proportion of these boy- 
husbands naturally die, leaving their widows virgins; and 
that there is not the same restraint, wdiich in this and other 



43^ The Indian Empire. 

Christian countries operates by religion and public opinion to 
curb the indulgence of passion. The fourth, and last great 
change, is a late law forbidding native princes to adopt heirs 
to their dominions, where no natural heirs exist. This is one 
of the greatest measures of Lord Dalhousie's administration, 
and one which has called down the most reprehension in 
England. It must, however, be considered a great triumph 
of the highest principles of justice — since no one can contend 
that the feelings of an individual should be weighed for a 
moment against the substantial good of millions of human 
beings, who, as the law formerly stood, would have been 
handed over, on the demise of the last scion of one line, to a 
new generation of despots, and a fresh lease of misrule. All 
these changes were opposed to the principles of Hindooism, 
and have met with even more opposition in England than in 
India. Several of them have been the subjects of severe 
attacks by eminent members of Parliament. Still they are 
among the greatest benefits conferred by the English upon 
India, and a verdict upon them may be left with confidence 
to any number of well-informed philanthropic and Christian 
men, whose views are not biased by sitting on the " composition 
benches." 

The criminal code is based upon the " Regulations" pub- 
lished by Lord Cornwallis in 1793. The punishments pre- 
scribed are very mild. Sixteen years of prison is the heaviest 
penalty for Dukoitee (burglary), forgery, perjury, and counter- 
feiting. Murder is punished by transportation or death, and 
is the only capital crime. Every capital condemnation has to 
be forwarded to the Supreme Court for approval. 

The evidence demanded by the English rules was found to 
interfere with the detection and punishment of the Thugs, as 
the witnesses, whose testimony was necessary for the convic- 
tion, were often living at points thousands of miles distant 
from the scene of the trial. This resulted from the habit 
which distinguished the Thugs, of never remaining long in 
one place; and also from most of their victims being travellers. 
It was, therefore, found necessary to establish a special depart- 
ment for the suppression of Thuggee. This department has 



Englifli Government in India. 437 

agents all over India, employed to take the testimony of all 
essential witnesses wherever they may be found. The Thug- 
gee department is also charged with the suppression of 
Dukoitee, a crime which consists in the robbinfr and burnino: 
of villages by armed bodies of men. 

Both these crimes are fearfully common in India, and the 
former was conducted with so much secrecy that it was years 
before the British discovered the existence of a society w^hose 
whole occupation consisted in systematic murder, in honour 
of the detestable goddess Bhowanee, to whose service they had 
devoted themselves. After the appointment of the Thuggee 
Commission, 1,562 Thugs were arrested, tried, and condemned 
in one year. One of these murderers, Feringhee (who has 
been made an actor 'in Dumas' novel, "The Wandering Jew"), 
confessed having committed 779 murders, and regretted that 
a confinement of twelve years in prison had j^revented his 
completing the thousand, which his ambition had led him to 
hope for. 

The crime of Dukoitee, w^hich has been mentioned above, is 
also very prevalent. It is also committed under the protec- 
tion of Bhowanee, and, as in the case of Thuggee, religious 
services precede the commission of the crime. The Dukoits 
usually go in large bands, and attack a village. Their habit 
is to torture the principal inhabitants, until they confess the 
hiding places of their money. The tortures they employ are 
very various; but although there are several more severe, 
the most common, because the most convenient, is to tie the 
sufferer's hands together wnth tow soaked in oil, which is then 
lighted, and the fire fed with fresh oil until confession is ex- 
torted. After the village is robbed, it is not unusual to kill 
all the inhabitants and burn the houses. It is now a well 
ascertained fact that there is a caste of hereditary Dukoits. 
Still the profession is by no means confined to them, but is 
practised by a large number of amateurs — mostly Moosul- 
mans. 

Another crime, which is much commoner than has been 
supposed, is human sacrifice, which is practised among some 
of the aboriofinal tribes. Dr. Allen states that in one small 



438 The Indian Empire. 

section of country, between three and four hundred victims 
were sacrificed in one year. 

The powerful arm of government has done much for the 
repression of these three offences ; and has entirely aboHshed 
the practice of Suttee, and other forms of voluntary religious 
suicide. There is one other offence, however, which, though 
it is kno\\Ti to be extensively prevalent, is yet practised so 
secretly, and is so entirely in consonance with the public 
opinion of the communities among whom it prevails, that all 
means of repression have hitherto been found ineffectual. I 
mean the crime of female infanticide, which prevails not only 
among the Khonds, and other aboriginal tribes who practise 
human sacrifice, but is also habitual among the Rajpoots — 
perhaps the finest Indian race. 

All the public roads in India are infested by poisoners. 
They generally do business on a smaller scale than the Thugs, 
and are contented with less profit in proportion to the risks. 
Several times it has appeared, in judicial nivestigations, that 
whole families were poisoned for the sake of a few shillings, 
and Colonel Sleeman tells of one case where a man and his 
son were poisoned to obtain a coverlet worth twelve anas 
(thirty-six cents). 

I have noticed these offences particularly, because some of. 
them are j)eculiar to India, and all of them are practised as a 
regular business by certain classes in the community. The 
other crimes, which are also found in Euroj)e, flourish under 
the Indian sun, and private enterprise is by no means driver, 
out of the field by the competition of these organised bodies. 

Several marked peculiarities distinguish crimes in the East 
from the same oflences elsewhere. The first is, that, like 
other occupations, murder, robbery, stealing, and the like of- 
fences are hereditary in certain castes. The second is, the 
great cruelty which is often shoT\m in the commission of 
crimes ; but this is not so wonderful among a people whose 
very school punishments are tortures. A third peculiarity is 
the extreme youth of many of the malefactors. For instance, 
among the capital condemnations, we find the merest children 
who murdered their playmates for the sake of their gold and 



Engliih Governnient in India. 439 

silver bangles. But the most remai-kable feature of all, is the 
rehgious sanction which is given to some of the most detesta- 
ble crimes. To quote the words of Lord Macaulay : " Through 
the whole Hindoo Pantheon you will look in vain for those 
beautiful and majestic forms which stood in the shrines of 
ancient Greece. All is hideous, grotesque, and ignoble. As 
this superstition is of all superstitions the most irrational, and 
of all superstitions the most inelegant, so is it of all super- 
stitions the most immoral. Emblems of vice are the objects 
of public worshij). Acts of vice ai-e acts of public w^orship. 
The courtesans are as much a part of the establishment of the 
temple, as much ministers of the god, as are the priests. 
Crimes against life, and crimes against property, are not only 
permitted, but enjoined, by this odious theology. But for our 
interference, human victims w^ould still be ofi'ered to the 
Ganges, and the widow would still be laid on the pile by the 
corpse of her husband, and burned alive by her children. It 
is by the command, and under the special protection, of one 
of the most powerful goddesses that the Thugs join them- 
selves to the unsuspecting traveller, make friends with him, 
slip the noose round his neck, plunge their knives mto his 
eyes, hide him in the earth, and divide liis money and bag- 
gage. I have read many examinations of the Thugs, and I 
remember particularly an altercation which took place between 
two of these wretches in the presence of an English officer. 
One Thug reproached the other with having been so irreligi- 
ous as to si^are the life of a traveller when the omens indicated 
that their patroness required a victim. ' How could you let 
him go ? How can you expect the goddess to protect us, if 
we disobey her commands? That is one of your North- 
Country heresies.' " 

Thieving, as distinguished from robbery, is very common all 
over India, and is often practised upon Europeans. The Thugs 
and Dukoits, on the contrary, never venture to attack the 
English, for fear of occasioning disastrous investigations. The 
skill of the Indian thieves is almost incredible. My friend, 
Colonel Mo watt, told me of one instance within his know- 
ledge, where an old resident of India made a bet with a re- 



440 The Indian Empire. 

cently arrived officer, that he would jDroduce a man who, 
within a month, would steal from the latter the sheet on 
which he was sleeping. The bet was concluded — the only- 
stipulations being that a month's time should be given for the 
performance of the feat, in order to prevent any extraordinary 
vigilance on the part of the officer, and that the latter should 
agree to take no more precautions than are usual in the way 
of locking his doors, &g. The end of the matter was that the 
officer woke up one morning and found no sheet under him. 
The mode in which the abstraction was accomplished was then 
explained. The thief entered the bedroom after the officer 
had retired, and concealed himself under the bed until he 
made sure, from the gentleman's breathing, that he was sound 
asleep. He then came out, and rolled up the sheet on each 
side of the sleeper, so that there remained only a narrow strip 
on which he lay. This done, he fanned the officer, that his 
rest might be perfectly sound, and then tickled him slightly 
on one cheek. The sleeper, of course, supposed the annoy- 
ance to arise from an insect, and attempted to brush it away 
with his hand. A constant repetition of this process, however, 
at last made him turn over in bed, leaving the sheet free. It 
now only remained for the thief to fan his unconscious victim 
into sound repose, to secure his booty, and make his exit as 
noiselessly as he had entered. 

I heard afterwards, from another officer, of an equally au- 
thentic exploit, where a sheet was stolen from under two Eu- 
ropeans who were sleeping side by side. In this case, the 
thief actually lay down in the bed, between the two, and hav- 
ing, as before, put them into a sound sleep by fanning, he 
began to work them off the sheet by pushing against them 
alternately. Each of the officers supposed it to be the other, 
and moved a little to give him more room, until at length 
they were both entirely off the sheet, which the thief had, as 
in the previous case, rolled up close to their sides, so as to 
cover as little space as possible. 

Indian thieves generally practise their trade stripped en- 
tirely naked, and having their bodies rubbed with oil, so that, 
even if detected, it is almost impossible to hold them. They 



Englifli Government in India. 441 

dislike violence, but always have a naked knife in one hand, 
which they use with unerring certainty if their other precau- 
tions and great agility and suppleness fail in securing for them 
a safe retreat. 

The precautions taken against discovery form one of the 
most remarkable features of crime in the East. It would 
seem that, as in Sparta, detection is considered the real 
offence. The Thugs, Dukoits, and Murderers, will wait pa» 
tiently from month to month, and the former track their vic- 
tims from place to place, until an opportunity arrives to per- 
petrate the crime in perfect safety. The booty is almost 
always buried or otherwise concealed, and they will suffer 
years to elapse, and all memory of the crime to disappear, 
before they enjoy the profits by disinterring the stolen arti- 
cles. They are not, however, faithful to one another like the 
Chinese, w^ho will not suffer the greatest torments to force 
from them the names of their accomplices. An Indian convict, 
when once condemned, show^s the greatest alacrity in " peach- 
ing" upon his previous comrades. It was by taking advantage 
of this trait in their character that the "Thuggee Commis- 
sion" made such rapid progress in suppressing that fearful as- 
sociation. A Thus: would be detected and competed in Hin- 
doostan, and would then generally volunteer an account of 
himself, his exploits, and the gang to which he had belonged. 
They showed the most frightfully accurate recollection of de- 
tails, and the Thuggee Committees found no difficulty in iden- 
tifying the spots where murdered travellers had been buried, 
and the hiding places where their booty was concealed, from 
the indications forwarded to them by letter, though the locali- 
ties might be in the Dekkun, a thousand miles from the part 
of the country w^here the Thug who gave the evidence had 
perhaps resided for years. A curious story is told of the way 
in which a band of thieves prevented the identification of one 
of their number. An attemj^t was made to rob the tent of an 
officer. He awoke, and succeeded in seizing the thief by his 
legs as he was creeping under the tent. A brief struggle 
then ensued, but the officer finally dragged his captive back, 
and was much shocked by discovering that the head of tlie 

19* 



442 The Indian Empire. 

unfortunate thief had been neatly amputated by his " pals" 
outside, to avoid the chance of recognition. These precau- 
tions, and the secrecy and mystery which surround all crimes, 
are among the principal obstacles to their detection and pun- 
ishment. 

I have already sjDoken of the penalties of crime when treat- 
ing of the courts. A few details, however, may place the 
penal system in a clearer light. The death penalty is only 
used in case of murder, and is even then but rarely enforced, 
both on account of the necessity of the sentence behig con- 
firmed by the Supreme Court, and because the gallows is not 
an object of much dread to the native*. It has not unfre- 
quently happened that criminals have gone to the scaifold 
with flowers and music, surrounded by admiring friends, ad- 
justed the noose with their own hands, and voluntarily taken 
the fatal leap. This was princi|3ally seen in the case of Moo- 
sulmans, whose execution by Kaffurs (infidels) was looked upon 
by the faithful as a martyrdom, who wore upon the scafibld 
the green dress of a martyr, and whose remains were wor- 
shipped as such by the Mahommedans. This latter abuse has, 
however, been stopped by a general order of government, re- 
quiring that the bodies of all executed convicts should be 
burned and their ashes scattered — a regulation as satisfactory 
to the Hindoos as it was distasteful to the Mahommedans. A 
penalty regarded in such a light could not of course prove 
very effectual in suppressing crime, and it has therefore hap- 
pened that the severest punishment generally employed is trans- 
portation to one of the Company's convict establishments at 
Singapore, Moolmen, or Penang. To the Moosulman, trans- 
portation does not possess greater terrors than to the Chris- 
tian, but it deprives him of the eclat attending a death upon 
the gallows. The penalty of transportation has, however, this 
advantage in the case of Hindoos, that it touches them in the 
only point in which they seem to feel punishment — their caste. 
Kala panee, or *' black water," as deportation beyond the seas 
is called among the natives, takes away all caste not only from 
the criminals themselves, but also from their families, for seve- 
ral generations in ascending and descending lines. Blowing 



Englifli Government in India. 443 

away from guns is the only form of the death penalty which 
has the same ejffect. It was a not unusual punishment under 
the old dynasties, but from its apparent barbarity was disused 
by tlie Enghsh government until the recent atrocities called 
for some speedy and efficacious means of discipline. I say its 
apparent barbarity ; for of course the suffering is no greater 
than, or not so great as, in hanging, or execution by the mili- 
tary plan of shooting. 

The lowest form of punishment is confinement in prison — 
all corporal penalties, as flogging or mutilation, which are pre- 
scribed by the old laws, having been abohshed. The objection 
made to the " Model Prison," at Pentonville, that the prison- 
ers were made more comfortable than they would be out of 
jail, used to apply with great force to the Indian prisons. So 
great regard was formerly paid to the feelings of the prison- 
ers, that they were allowed to purchase and cook their own 
food ; and a proposal to make them eat at a common table ex- 
cited the greatest outcry among that class of j^ersons who 
think the prejudices of the native are matters of so great im- 
portance that they should be suffered to interfere with the 
well-deserved punishment of the horrible crimes which they 
commit. Fortunately, however, economical considerations 
counterbalanced the opposition alluded to, and the food of the 
prisoners is now all cooked and seiwed out to them in com- 
mon. Smoking, too, which was formerly allowed, has been 
lately abolished. It may now be hoped that the prisons of 
India, while they continue to afford the convict every reasona- 
ble comfort, will be a " terror to evil doers" from the destruc- 
tion of caste incurred by entering them, and from the depri- 
vation of his habitual luxury, the hookah, to which the prisoner 
will henceforth be subjected.'" 

* It would appear from what Dr. Duff says, that the provisions above al- 
luded to have not been thoroughly carried out. He gives an instance where 
an English clergyman visited one of the large jails about a year ago. "In 
one of the rooms was a large circular platform made of wood. On this plat- 
form two men were busily engaged in kneading bread. A little girl, one of 
the party, accidentally iouclied this platform luith her foot. She did not touch 
the meal, or go vi'ithin a yard of the men. But they at once became insolent, 



444 The Indian Empire. 

I have now spoken of offences against life and property, and 
of one crime against morality, namely, lying. With respect 
to other offences against morality, and, in particular, the awful 
forms of licentiousness which are common, I cannot speak. 
They are such horrors as pollute the mind of him who only 
hears them mentioned. Bayard Taylor says of the Chinese : 
" Forms of vice which, in other countries, are barely named, 
are, in China, so common that they excite no comment among 
the natives. They constitute the surface-level, and below 
them there are deeps on deeps of depravity so shocking and 
horrible that their character cannot even be hinted. There 
are some dark shadows in human nature which we naturally 
shrink from penetrating, and I made no attempt to collect in- 
formation of this kind, but there was enough in the things 
which I could not avoid seeing and hearing — which are brought 
almost daily to the notice of every Chinese resident — to inspire 
me with a powerful aversion to the Chinese race. Their touch 
is pollution," &c. From this Mr. Taylor concludes that " the 
Chinese are morally the most debased people on the face of 
the earth." Had he remained stationary as long in India as 
he did in China, he might have found reason to modify his 
opinion, and he would, no doubt, without " attempting to col- 
lect information," have become aware of facts which would 
have induced him to give to the natives of India the evil pre- 
eminence which he attributes to the Chinese, and he might 
even have concluded, as I did, that the Chinese were a moral 
race in comparison. It is quite impossible, without utter vio- 
lation of decency, to give a full idea of the enormities which 
are common in India. If the reader can suppose the horrors 
of Sodom to be magnified and perfected by thousands of 
years during which they have been practised ; if he can im- 
agine that putrifying sore not to have been utterly consumed 
by the hot fires of an offended God, but to have been per- 
mitted by His long-suffering to pollute the earth, and to have 
gone on rotting and festering to the present time, then he may 

refused to prepare the bread, and complained to the governor of the Jail. The 
governor ordered all the meal to be thrown away and fresh to be given." 



Englifli Government in India. 445 

form some conception of the fearful excesses now daily prac- 
tised in India.* 

Officials in India are blamed for the tone assumed by them 
toward natives of education and position. It is alleged that 
too little consideration, too little respect is shown them. 
This allegation is unfounded. So far as regards courtesy in 
public, not only the orders of the government, but the gen- 
tlemanly feelings of the officers themselves, induce them to 
treat with every attention those natives of standing — native 
gentlemen they are called — with whom they are brought into 
connection, either officially or socially. But English officers 
cannot look upon these natives with any respect; they can- 
not look upon them as in any sense their equals, or worthy 
to mix in the society of themselves, and especially of 
their wives and families ; and it is not very wonderful that 
the disgust, which courtesy forbids them to show in public, 
should be occasionally visible in the coldness of their manners, 
and that the utter contempt which the rough-mannered but 
honourable soldier feels for these whited sepulchres, these po- 
lished villains, should find an open and frequent expression in 
private. In fact, what a perversion of terms is it to apply 
to such men the name of gentleman — a term of which we 
are so justly proud, because no other language has for it an 
equivalent. What do we mean by a gentleman ? We mean, 
in the first place, a man of position and of polished manners — • 
these are possessed to the highest extent by those natives to 
whom the term is applied. But do we not mean something 
more ? Do we not associate with the word the possession of 
those higher qualities, the respect for which has descended to 
us from the age of chivalry? Must not a gentleman be a 
man of ho7ioiii\ of truth^ of courage f Must he not have a 
certain respect for what is weak and helpless ; a detestation 
of all unfair advantage, a chivalrous respect for women ; and 
must he not shrink from all that is mean, low, cowardly, and 

* The lower classes, the mass of the population ia India, are not, I thinlc, 
as licentious as the same class in China, This frightful depravity is found de- 
veloped in the higher orders, and especially among the Mahommodans, nearly 
all of whom, in all ranks, are more or loss liable to the charge above named. 



44^ The Indian Empire. 

degrading ? In jBne, must not every gentleman be a man in 
the fullest and highest sense of the term ? and will any amount 
of wealth, power, or refined manners, make up for the utter 
absence of truth, honour, and every ennobling moral quality? 
'Now, when we consider that, in addition to all this treachery, 
lying, moral cowardice, and degradation, a native gentleman 
lives in the habitual practice of crimes so loathsome that no 
convict in our prisons would not shrink from the charge of 
them if made against himself, I am sure it will be a subject 
of wonder, not that all who know their character should de- 
spise them, but that any man who respects himself should be 
willing to mingle with them in society on terms of equality. 

In ending this examination of crimes and their punishment, 
which is necessary to a right understanding of the native char- 
acter, I must allude to the remarkable fact that convictions 
for various offences have undergone a progressive increase 
under the Company's government. In Bengal, for instance, 
there were in 1838 twenty-six thousand convictions, while in 
1844 there were forty-five thousand. The only reasonable 
explanation is to be found in the greater perfection of the 
machinery of justice, which brought to light crimes that 
otherwise would have gone unpunished, and classes of oflen- 
ders whose existence had not been suspected. Enghsh magis- 
trates had administered justice for fifty years in India before 
they became aware of the wide-spread system of Thiiggee, 
and it was only in 1 842 that a large caste were found to be 
devoted by birth to the crime of Dukoitee. There is, unfor- 
tunately, in India, a wall of mystery, ruse, lying, and indiffer- 
ence to good and evil, which surrounds all the details of the 
inner fife among native communities, and defies every effort 
made by the most active and intelligent magistrates. To this 
great obstacle may be added the unreliable and corrupt char- 
acter of the native police, whose exactions and oppressions are 
so great as to deter the sufferers from applying to the au- 
thorities for protection. . This last difiiculty is the most for- 
midable obstacle which the magistrate meets with in the dis- 
charge of his duty ; and, what is worse, it is a difficulty to 
which no efficient remedy can be applied so long as the 



Engliili Government in India. 447 

administnition of justice involves the employment of native 
subordinates. 

Of all the machinery of the Indian government, the police 
system certainly works worst. The police are of two kinds. 
First, the village police. This is an institution which has ex- 
isted in India from time immemorial, under all sorts of gov- 
ernments, and has never been abolished by the Company. 
This is an indubitably native institution, and has existed from 
all time ; and yet it is one of the most fatal curses that blight 
the prosperity of this unhappy country. The village police 
are the obedient and ready tools of every zemindar or rich 
native who will pay for their services. For money they will 
plunder the j)Oor, will torture the obstinate, and will turn a 
blind eye to every offence, or will aid in the commission of any 
crime however atrocious. The outrages which they daily 
commit under the nominal authority of the law, either for 
their OAvn purposes or in the interest of wealthy natives, are 
enough to draw down the execrations of the nation on any 
government, however well intentioned, which lends them the 
protection of their authority. 

This is the first class, the old native police of the country, a 
thoroughly Hindoo institution. Besides these there are the 
government police, who number only about one-thirtieth of 
the first class. They are immediately under the authority of 
the magistrate, and are supposed to aid him in the adminis- 
tration of justice. In reality, however, they are but little 
better than the village police, and serve only to defeat the 
ends of justice, and protect the guilty, if rich. 

The police connive at all sorts of villainy, and share the 
proceeds of the most horrible crimes. They take advantage 
of their position to blind the eyes of the European magistrate 
and divert his suspicions. When the crime of Thuggee was 
discovered, it was also found out that the police everywhere 
had long been aware of the existence of this crime, that in 
many places they were accomplices,-.and, in particular, the 
chief police magistrate of Delhi was actually a regular mem- 
ber of a band of Thugs. The same thing is true of Dukoitee 
and other crimes. 



448 The Indian Empire. 

As for extortion, corrupting of witnesses, and intimidating 
prosecutors, their power in these respects is almost unlimited, 
and they have not hesitated in some instances to employ even 
torture to gain their ends. It is only of late years that the ex- 
istence of "torture " under the Enghsh government has been 
discovered, though it has undoubtedly been continuously 
practised in secret, as it was the general and open custom of 
native governments, and remains in use in those native states 
which still exist. So much was this the case, that it has be- 
come recognised by the universal rule of right, namely, ma- 
mool (custom). A ryut once said to Mr. Lushington, an able 
servant of the Company : " I brought the money for my rent, 
but as no violence was used I did not pay it ;" and it is well 
known that the villagers will often bring the whole amount 
of their dues, wrapped up in the folds of their clothing, and 
only pay as much as they are compelled to. A native looks 
upon all demands for money, whether just or unjust, in much 
the same hght, and will generally only pay if he is forced to. 
This state of things would excuse torture in the eyes of the 
most enlightened and merciful native rulers, but would form 
no excuse for its employment under an English government. 
Accordingly, in the very thorough investigation which took 
place in India a few years ago, not one Englishman was im- 
pUcated directly or indirectly. All the instances were found 
in places remote from the residences of European officials. In 
a few cases only it would appear that complaint had been 
made to the Enghsh magistrates. In most of such instances 
the offender had been summarily punished. The great mass 
of the magistrates had never even suspected the existence of 
such doings by their subordinates. The whole investigation 
proved two things. First, how entirely unreliable are native 
officials, and how unscrupulous they are in the employment of 
any means for their own advantage ; secondly, how utterly 
insufficient is the number of European officials to exercise the 
necessary supervision over the actions of their subordinates. 
In Bengal, as I have said, each magistrate with his deputies, has, 
on the average, jurisdiction over a million of men. In Madras, 
where the abuses spoken of are the greatest, there is a district 



Englifli Government in India. 449 

where there is only one European official to half a million of 
souls, and four other districts where the j^opulation averages 
over 300,000. How is it possible for a European to exercise an 
adequate supervision over so vast a territory ? Even had he 
the most honest and efficient subordinates, it would be almost 
impossible to oversee their acts. But the case is infinitely 
worse, where, as in India, the magistrate is surrounded by 
subordinates universally venal, tyrannical, and directly inter- 
ested hi misgovernment, and in concealing the truth from 
their superior. With such agents as those, who can wonder 
if he fails in the government of a million of people, prone to 
vice, given to crimes unknown in Europe, and with powers of 
lying and deception which are absolutely unfathomable. Be- 
sides the executive government of this multitude, he is ex- 
pected to administer justice in a foreign language, and accor- 
ding to codes the most various and contradictory, and the 
provisions of which are often absurd and unintelligible ; and 
that too with a set of assistants who are every one of them 
venal rascals, from the door-keeper, who will exclude a 
witness for a bribe, and always demands a fee to admit a 
petitioner, to the magistrate's clerk, who takes down depo- 
sitions and alters them as he is paid for it, or the interpreters 
of native law, who vary the readings for a consideration. 
Everybody bribes in these courts : those who are in the 
wrong that they may appear right ; and those who are right, 
lest they should be made to appear wi'ong. 

The magistrates are aware of this state of things, but they 
can do nothing. The work is such that they must have na- 
tive assistants, and one man of this class is as bad as another. 
Bribing is the universal rule all over India. It is mamool — 
recognised custom ; and if one set of corrupt subordinates are 
discharged, their successors will certainly be as bad, and may 
be worse. The only possible remedy is in a great increase of 
European officials. It is not too much to say that it would 
require a hundred men to perform thoroughly the work now 
assigned to a single magistrate. At present, the English 
government, though the magistrates are men of the highest 
character, and actuated by the best intentions, is quite inade- 



450 The Indian Empire. 

quate to the thorougli administration of justice and prevention 
of the abuses which spring up in fiightful profusion and viru- 
lence wherever natives are left without supervision or control. 
The small quantity of European energy is lost in the immensity 
of native indifference and apathy, and the purity of the magis- 
trate can do but little to remedy the corruption of his thousand 
abandoned subordinates. 

If such is the state of things under English rule, one may 
imagine what it is under a native government, where the 
abuses of the inferiors. are surpassed by the cruelty and extor- 
tion of the highest magistrates, where shameless bribery 
extends to all, and where truth and justice are systematically 
ignored, and any improvement is impossible, from the absolute 
corruption of the whole body politic, from the weakest mem- 
ber np to the very head itself. 

In looking for an explanation of the low morality of the 
Hindoo character, we find its causes, first, in their religion, next 
in their education. The influence of the horrible superstitions 
of India has already been dwelt upon, and diffuses itself 
throuo:hout the whole education of the child. As to the 
education, it is not only in the schools, where the ordinary 
reading-books are obscene legends of the various Hindoo 
deities, but much more in the family that the character is 
formed. Now what can be expected of a man, brought up 
from his youth to join in the foul ceremonies of the Hindoo 
religion ; Avhose tongue was taught to lisp, as its first utter- 
ances, the impure hymns sung in the worship of the gods ; who 
sees his mother considered as an upper servant, of infinitely 
less importance than himself; whose mind, from his earliest 
youth, was bent into the most abject reliance upon the Brah- 
muns, about whom it is said, " respect is due to a wicked 
Brahmun, but not to a Soodra, even if virtuous ; is not a 
vicious cow better than an amiable cat ?" and who practises 
as his religious devotions, the worship of the lowest animals 
— nay, even of the bench he sits on, or the spade with which 
he digs ? 



CHAPTER XXXYII. ' 

THE ARMY OF INDIA. 

Its Streugtli — Difforout Classes of Troops — English ami Native Officers — Enlistment 
purely Voluntary — Pay — Madras Army — Bombay Army — Low-Caste Men — An 
Army of Gentlemen— Truckling to Caste— Tame Tigers— Salaries of Officers— Staff- 
Service. 

The army of India comprises troops of three classes : Mrst, 
the Queen's army, consisting of royal regiments stationed in 
India, and paid, while there, by the Honourable Company. 
Secondly^ the Company's European troops, comprising three 
regiments of infantry, and the European artillery. The whole 
Euroj^ean force probably never exceeded 30,000 men. Thirdly^ 
the native soldiers, or sepoys, who were divided into three 
armies, belonging respectively to the three Presidencies, and 
having independent, though similar organizations. There is a 
commander-in-chief over the army of each Presidency ; but 
the supreme command of the whole mihtary force in India 
is vested in the commander-in-chief of the Bengal army, who 
must always be a general in the Queen's service. The entire 
strength of the native armies may be reckoned at 270,000, 
two-thirds of which belonged to the Presidency of Bengal. 
The aggregate number of troops in India, was, therefore, 
before the recent great mutmy, probably about 300,000. 

The European troops were under English officers exclusively; 
but the sei^oy forces were commanded partly by English 
officers, partly by natives. The colonel, lieutenant colonel, 
major, six captains, ten lieutenants, and five ensigns, com- 
pose the full complement of European officers for each sepoy 
regiment. The native commissioned officers are, ten soobah- 
dars, and ten jemadars, who rank with captains and Heuten- 



452 • The Indian Empire. 

ants respectively. All the non-commissioned officers are, of 
course, natives. Their titles are havilclar and naik, answering 
to sergeant and corporal. 

The army is recruited entirely by voluntary enlistment, and 
the advantages which it presents are so great that there has 
never been any necessity for estabhshing recruiting stations, or 
using any of the means found necessary, in England and this 
country, to encourage enlistment. 

The pay of the sepoys varies from 7 to 9 rupees a month. 
Against this must be set off the cost of the imiform, and 
their food, both of which are furnished by government at 
fixed rates. These expenses amount on the average to about 
four rupees a month, so that most of the soldiers save thirty-six 
rupees a year, which they remit to their families through the 
hands of government. After fifteen years of seiwice the se- 
poys retire with pensions of from four rupees upwards. The 
pay of the native officers is — the naik 1 2 rupees ; the havildar 
14 rupees; the jemadar, 40 rupees ; the soobahdar, 60 rupees 
per month. The eagerness which the natives show to enter 
the Company's service is easily understood when we reflect 
that the lowest pay of a sepoy is nearly double what the same 
man could make at other occupations, and that, in the army, 
he is put beyond the reach of bad seasons, want of work, or 
any of the other eventualities which diminish or render uncer- 
tain the small wages of three or four rupees a month which 
is all that most kinds of labour can earn in India. 

The Madras army is recruited among the inhabitants of that 
Presidency, and admits men of all castes, as does also the Bom- 
bay army. The soldiers for the latter, were, however, j^artly 
obtained in Oude, by means of recruiting agents. These 
low-caste men make much the best soldiers. Their caste does 
not prevent their serving beyond the seas ; they can eat, if 
necessary, the food left cold from the day before ; and they 
will not refuse any reasonable task. The only drawback is 
theii' appearance and height, which are not equal to those of 
the high-caste Rajpoots, who formed the Bengal army. 

The army 'of Bengal was, in appearance, by far the best of 
the three : superior in stature, and equal in drill to most of 



The Army of India. . 453 

the European services. The average height of the men is 
said to have been two inches greater than that of the British 
army ten years ago. They were exckisively composed of men 
of high caste, and many of the soldiers in each regiment were 
related to each other, as it was customary for the sepoys, 
when they visited their homes on leave, to bring back with 
them some of their brothers or cousins as recruits. The 
sepoys of the Bengal army always looked with the greatest 
disdain upon those of the two other Presidencies ; and this 
pride was unfortunately encouraged by their officers and the 
government, W'lio yielded to their wishes in forbidding the 
enlistment of low-caste men. The compliance with one de- 
mand occasioned others. They could not wear certam articles 
of clothing : the government changed the regulation uniform. 
They were of too noble birth to be flogged: flogging was 
abolished, and with it discipline gradually disapj^eared. They 
would not eat food jn'epared by others, or which remained from 
their yesterday's meal : ample time was allowed them each day 
to cook, and no officer could go near to inspect them dnring that 
operation. Their caste w^ould be lost if they went on board ship : 
and after almost exciting a mutiny, the government yielded 
to this demand also, and sent to China and Burmah sepoys 
of the Madras army, at greatly increased expense, for those 
purposes. The cavalry were too fine gentlemen to groom 
their own horses, and the mfantry thought it beneath them to 
pitch their own tents : the government went so far as to prd^- 
vide them w^ith servants for these purposes. Lastly, they dis- 
covered that manual labour w^as degrading ; and white soldiers 
w^ere actually made to do their work in the trenches under the 
deadly rays of an Indian sun. The result of all this w^as, that 
w^hile in the armies of the smaller Presidencies discipline was 
thoroughly kept up, in the Bengal army there was, during late 
years, the greatest want of it. The only substantial punish- 
ment which the officers could inflict, w^as dismissal from the 
service. The men became every day more arrogant and 
assuming ; the officers, more compliant and yielding f' until, 

* An extraordinarv instance of truckling to caste has lately occurred. Du- 



454 The Indian Empire. 

having had then* pride, self-conceit, and opinion of their own 
importance raised to the highest point by the acts of the 
government, they became fit tools for 'the crafty agitators 
who worked upon their superstitious prejudices to bring about 
the recent terrible mutiny. 

The English Government have now learned what they will 
never forget, that an Oriental is a very useful animal so long 
as you keep a tight rein, and let him see that you are the 
master ; but that they are incapable of aiDpreciating generosity 
or indulgence — qualities which they consider symptoms of 
weakness, and rej)ay by ingratitude and treachery. In many 
towns of India, leopards may be seen, tied to bed-posts, in the 
open streets. They are perfectly harmless, tame, and docile, 
being kept so by the fear of a certain iron rod. I used often 
to think that each of these animals was a parable. 

Promotion in the Indian army, whether among the native 
or European officers, is entirely by seniority. The former, 
(the native officers,) are no better than the men whom they 
command. They are mostly ignorant of reading and writing, 
without other education, and do not seem to be at all socially 
raised, in the estimation of the sej)oys, by possessing a com- 
mission. Although, by the regulations of the army, they rank 
with the English captains and lieutenants, their duties are 
practically those of non-commissioned officers, and their only 
superiority over the common sepoys consists in their greater 

ring the mutiny, the 'TOth regiment, stationed at Barraekpoor, were only kept 
fi'om open revolt by the presence of British troops. At length, they conde- 
scended to proceed to China, in compUance with the request of government. 
Before they went on board ship, a commission of European ofi&cials was de- 
puted to inspect the ship personally, and report whether the water-tanks and 
other arrangements were in accordance with the rules and usages of caste. 
On the way to Singapore, the scoundrels became noisy and impudent, and at 
length carried their insolence so far, that they requested, in the most offen- 
sive terms, that the dinner should not le carried aft for the officers^ as the stearni 
or gravy from the dishes might touch them, and so take aioay their caste. The 
commander of the transport, a bluff English sailor, expected to see such inso- 
lence at once put down with a strong hand. The officers of the regiment, 
however, temporized v*^ith their men, and soothed them ; and actually asked 
the captain if the difiiculty could not be remedied. 



The Army of India. 4^^ 

age, and their higher pay. The salaries of the European offi- 
cers, which range from 200 rupees per month for the ensi«-n, 
to 1,000 rupees for the colonel, are not found to be more than 
sufficient for the comfortable support of the officer, especially 
if he is married — so great are the necessary expenses of livino- 
in India ; and it is rare to find an officer who lives upon his 
salary, and who has not involved himself more or less deeply 
in debt. 

On account of the great difficulty, w^hich has already been 
dwelt upon, of obtaining honest and able servants in the ex- 
ecutive departments of government, the Company have been 
compelled to increase their administrative force at the expense 
of the army, by appointing officers to various civil employs. 
It is calculated that one quarter of the officers of the Bengal 
army were thus removed from their regiments. All these 
staff employs conferred a very considerable augmentation of 
pay, and did not remove the appointee from the line of pro- 
motion hi his regiment, so that they became prizes eagerly 
sought after by the officers. Every " griffin" (cadet) on join- 
ing his regiment, set himself down to the task of acquiring 
the requisite amount of Persian and Hindoostanee, or what- 
ever was required to pass the staff examination ; and in this 
way the system did a great deal to improve the general 
character of the officers, by inducing them to spend their 
leisure hours in studying Persian and engineering, instead of 
idling away the day at billiards or whist. The system of con- 
ferring staff employs upon military men had the great dis- 
advantage of removing tlie older officers from the regiment, 
and leaving the soldiers under the care of the younger and 
less experienced men. But on the whole, it probably did 
more good than harm, even in the regiments ; and when con- 
sidered with reference to the whole public service, it was per- 
haps the only expedient that could be adopted to remedy 
the great want of suitable administrative officials. 



CHAPTER XXXYIII. 

WEALTH AND REYENUE OF INDIA. 

Undeveloped Condition of the Eesonrces of India — Cotton — Obstacles to Development- 
Small Agriculturalists— Caste — "Want of Capital among Agricultural Classes — Infe- 
riority of Native Labour — Want of Eoads — Eaihvays — Ganges Canal — Want of Euro- 
pean Capital and Energy — Obstacles to the Supply of this — Land-tax under Native 
Governments — Under the English — Lord Cornwallis's " Settlement" — The Madras 
System — The " Village System" — Its Advantages — To be made still more Liberal — 
Eevenue and Expenses of the Indian Government — Low Taxation — India a Poor 
Country — Misapprehensions that have prevailed with regard to the Wealth of Ori- 
ental Nations. 

The resources of India are iu a wholly undeveloped con- 
dition. Yast tracts of fertile and valuable land are uncul- 
tivated ; and even where cultivation exists, it is so rude, and 
the means of preparing the produce for market are so inferior, 
that many of the Indian products cannot compete in Europe 
with those which are also produced in other countries. The 
chmate and soil of almost every part of India are adapted 
to the cultivation of some valuable crop. Cotton, rice, sugar, 
silk, and tea could all be grown in quantities sufficient to sup- 
ply the native demand, and to take a yqvj large, if not the 
largest place in the foreign consumption. Thus far, however, 
the fertile soil and cheap labour of India have not enabled it 
to compete successfully in these articles with the productions 
of other countries. For instance, that most important staple, 
cotton, which was first grown to any considerable extent in 
India, of which it has been calculated that three billions of 
pounds are still yearly raised, and with which India once sup- 
plied the markets of England and America, occupies in the 
English market a vastly inferior position compared with 
Ameiican cotton, and would scarcely be imported at all were 
it not for the limits of the supply derived from this country ; 



Revenue and Wealth of India. 457 

while manufactured cottons now hardly form an item in the 
list of exports from India, being entirely driven out of the 
market by the cheapness and excellent quality of the fabrics 
manufactured in England, which are now exported to India to 
the amount of over four millions and a half sterhng yearly. 

When we read that the cotton-plant is indigenous to India, 
and grows wild in many parts of the country ; when we learn 
from the reports of American planters what immense tracts of 
land there are in India adapted by nature in every way for 
the growth of the best qualities of cotton ; and when we hear 
that, four hundred miles from Bombay, cottons in no respect 
inferior to the finest grown in America^ can be bought in the 
market for from 3 to 4 cents the pound, we are naturally at a 
loss to account lor the fact that India does so little toward 
sU2:)plying the immense and increasing demand for this most 
important article of commerce. 

It is true that the cotton of India, at least the largest part 
of it, and the whole of what is exported, is very inferior in 
length of staple to the American article. But this will by no 
means prove a satisfactory answer, when we reflect upon the 
greatly increased demand, far outrunning the means of supply ; 
when we remember that even if inferior to American, the In- 
dian cotton is still much the cheapest, and of great value to the 
manufacturer, and that supposing the article now produced in 
India were intrinsically useless, still the soil would offer every 
inducement to a planter who would bring with him American 
plants or seeds. 

The real exj^lanation of the undeveloped state of this and 
the other enormous productive powers of India, is to be found 
in a consideration of the following obstacles. In the first place, 
almost the whole agriculture of the country is in the hands of 
natives, each of whom cultivates only a small patch of land. 
This is of itself a most formidable check upon increased and 
improved cultivation, as no great improvements can be carried 
into operation without large tracts of land and considerable 
capital. Then, from those peculiar caste-prejudices which are 

* U. De Yalbezen. 
20 



458 The Indian Empire. 

the bane of India, agriculture is despised as a degrading occu- 
pation, and is left to the lowest class of the population who 
are too ignorant to be taught improvements and too stupid to 
put them in practice, and who, even if they could be persuaded 
to deviate from the system of cultivation which has come 
down to them unchanged since the days of ]S"oah, are so far 
from possessing the smallest capital that most of them are 
mere slaves of the village bankers, to whom they are irretrie- 
vably in debt. The state of hopeless indebtedness of by far 
the larger part of the inhabitants of India, is not the least 
curious feature of that country. The ryut' has no capital of 
his own, but receives advances from the banker or the zemin- 
dar, as the case may be, to plant his crops. For these ad- 
vances he pays an exorbitant rate of interest, and to secure 
repayment hypothecates the crop. Besides the advances at 
the beginning of each season, he also has to borrow sums of 
money on the occasions of marriages, funerals, or lawsuits, 
which soon amount to so much that the profits of his whole 
crop each year are barely more than sufficient to repay the in- 
terest on his debts, and perhaps also those of his father, which 
have descended to him. Again, native labour is vastly infe- 
rior to that of Europeans or even of Chinese. For instance, 
a Lascar crew always has three or four times as many men in 
it as would be required if they were European sailors ; and at 
Calcutta, where native skilled labour comes in competition 
with that of Chinese and Europeans, a native artisan does not 
earn more than from five to ten rupees a month, while his 
Chinese competitor will get as high as thirty or forty, and a 
European can obtain eighty or ninety at the same trade. I 
was told by the manager of one of the Company's large tea 
plantations that they found it quite impossible to entrust the 
picking of the tea-leaves or the manufacturing processes to 
natives, as they either had not enough skill or would not ex- 
ercise the requisite care. They therefore found it necessary 
to employ Chinese labour, which was exceedingly expensive, 
as the Chinese would not come without their wives and fami- 
lies. Such, then, is the first great obstacle to the develop- 
ment of India-— the intrinsic inferiority of native labour, and 



Revenue and Wealth of India. 459 

the want of capital embarked in agriculture. The next hin- 
drance to development is found in the want of communication 
with the coast. Under the old native governments, India had 
not a single road by y.'hich goods could be conveyed from the 
interior to the sea-ports ; the only medium of communication 
was by the dangerous and uncertain navigation of the rivers, 
or the slower conveyance by camels, rough carts, or bullocks- 
of-burden. Roads are not that matter of j^rimary necessity in 
India which they are in other countries, since during the dry 
season the level plains are traversable by carts and armies ; 
and during the rains, no communication between different 
parts of the country used to be attempted. This state of 
things remained almost unchanged in the earlier years of 
British rule, while their sway was still limited, their tenure of 
the country precarious, and their attention constantly occupied 
by commerce on the one hand and incessant wars on the other. 
Since the power of the English has been thoroughly estab- 
lished, a vast system of internal improvements has been begun, 
which includes roads and railways enough to open the whole 
country to commerce, and place every important point in 
ready communication with the coast. The most important 
road so far built is the Grand Trunk road from Calcutta to 
Peshawur, which will be fifteen hundred miles long when 
completed, and will probably cost £900,000. It is already 
finished for three-quarters of its whole length, and has proved 
of immense benefit to the vast and fertile valley of the Ganges 
through which it extends. The whole of the Grand Trunk 
road is built and kept up as well as any highway in Europe, 
and there are beside over 2000 miles of similar first-class road 
either comj^leted or under construction in Northern India 
alone. Besides these macadamized roads, four thousand miles 
of railway are now being constructed ; only four hundred are 
complete, but 1861 is the latest date fixed for the completion 
of the remainder. In no respect, perhaps, has the Company 
been more blamed lately than for not hurrying the comple- 
tion of these railw^ays. As matters have turned out, that 
blame comes with the greatest weight, since there can be no 
doubt that many fives would have been saved and the dura- 



460 The Indian Empire. 

tion of the mutiny mucli shortened by the convenience for 
sending troops up-country which they would have afforded. 
Still the benefits which would have been derived from them 
are probably exaggerated, as the first act of the mutineers 
would no doubt have been to tear up the rails. Again, it 
must be remembered that neither the Company, nor any of 
its agents, excei^t Sir Charles Napier and one or two others, 
had any expectation of a general revolt, or the least suspicion 
of the possibility of such a movement. With regard to Sir 
Charles, his writings certainly read now very much like pro- 
phecies, but when they were written did not derive nearly as 
much support from facts as do now the disunion threats and 
prognostications made, not by one man, but by whole States 
in the southern part of our country ; and yet no one here 
thinks it worth while to prepare for the eventuality of a disso- 
lution of the Union. On the other hand, the Indian govern- 
ment have all along done everything to further the building 
of railways, except to take them actually into their own hands. 
They had no funds to spare for these gigantic undertakings, 
and preferred that they should be carried on by private capi- 
tal ; to encourage the investment of which they guaranteed a 
dividend of five per cent, besides offering other inducements. 
There is plenty of money among the native bankers and tra- 
ders, but they have been found unwilling to divert their capital 
from its accustomed employment in money lending, to the un- 
tried field of vast enterprises such as railways. This the gov- 
ernment could not foresee when they decided that it was bet- 
ter for the country that the railroads should be constructed 
by private enterprise and capital cheaply and rapidly (as it 
was supposed they would be), than that India should be bur- 
dened with a new debt, and the building of the roads left alto- 
gether in the hands of government agents, who would be 
probably as dilatory and as fond of jobs as the same class else- 
where. 

So much for roads and railways, the want of which has 
heretofore proved so great an obstacle to the development of 
India. It is proper here to mention that the Ganges Canal 
will, when completed, play no small part in internal com- 



\ 



Revenue and Wealth of India. 461 

munication, as it is eighty feet wide, and, with its branches, 
nine hundred miles in length. When these roads, railways, 
and canals, are completed, they will do all that can be desired 
toward opening out the country, will remove what we have 
described as the second great obstacle to development, and 
will constitute, perhaps, the grandest series of internal im- 
provements ever undertaken. 

The third and last obstacle which we will consider, is the 
want of European settlers and cultivators. It is hardly too 
much to assert that the introduction of Europeans is abso- 
lutely necessary to the full development of a country where 
there is no capital among the ryuts — no agricultural enterprise 
among the native capitalists. Many things, however, have 
heretofore combined to prevent any extensive settlement by 
Europeans. The obstacles which we have already considered 
apply to them, as well as to natives. The inferiority of native 
labour, the unreliable character of the native subordinates 
which they must employ, and the tenure of land, which does 
not admit of freehold estates, are formidable impediments, 
but might be overcome by a man of capital, energy, and per- 
severance, were it not for the climate. This, apart from the 
numerous and fatal diseases to which it exposes the foreign 
settler, actually prevents his going into the open field during 
the daytime for a large part of the year, so that, however en- 
ergetic he may be, he finds himself physically hindered from 
exercising that constant supervision so essential to the success 
of any enterprise, more particularly in India. This last obsta- 
cle, the great difiiculties in the way of constant European 
superintendence, has had, I may here remark, the most un- 
fortunate influence on every great undertaking in India, espe- 
cially the government public works. Their progress has been 
delayed, and the perfection of their construction interfered 
with to an extent incredible to any one who does not appre- 
ciate the entire unreliabihty of native subordinates and con- 
tractors, and the absolute necessity for a constant, energetic, 
and minute supervision of whatever they do. 

Having examined, to a small extent, the question of the 
development of India, we will now take a brief view of the 



462 The Indian Empire. 

land-tenure — a matter so iinportant that it may be said to un- 
derlie the whole subject of agricultural improvement. 

In India all land belongs to the government, to which the 
cultivators pay yearly a certain share of the crops, in lieu of 
all demands for rent and taxes. This has always been the case, 
the fee never having been alienated from the sovereign. The 
land-tax in India has always been very heavy, perhaps because 
the lower classes who cultivate the soil have always been in so 
utter a state of slavery to conquerors. In Turkey and Persia, 
where the same system prevails, the land-tax is said to vary 
from one-tenth to one-fifth of the crops. In India, it was fixed 
by the Hindoo law at one-sixth, exclusive of the tithes for the 
support of religion, which were no doubt oppressive. Under 
the Moosulman Emperors, the general principle obtained that 
all the property of infidels is forfeited to true believers, and 
the only limit to their rapacity was the fear of killing the 
goose which laid the golden eggs. Although this statement 
would seem to show that the ryuts were better off under the 
Hindoo law than when subject to the Mahommedan domina- 
tion, yet it should be remembered that what they would gain 
by the moderation of the legal demand, they would lose by 
the rapacity of those charged with the execution of the law, 
so that their real situation was probably in both cases much 
the same. The Emperor Akbur, whose character was so much 
superior to that of the other Moosulman rulers, and whose 
philanthropic efibrts form so bright an episode in the long tale 
of Mahommedan misrule, tried to introduce great and impor- 
tant reforms into the land assessment. The principle which 
he established was to take one-third of the average gross 
crops, as determined by a careful survey of the land. It is 
doubtful whether the benevolent intentions of the Emperor 
were of any advantage to the ryuts, since any diminution of 
the imperial demand would probably be a gain only to the 
collector of taxes. At any rate, Akbur's system perished with 
the fall of the Mogul Empire, and its division into numerous 
independent states, which occurred before the arrival of the 
English. 

For a long time after the Company's power became estab- 



Revenue and Wealth of India. 463 

lished, they did not at all interfere with the native adminis- 
tration of the government and revenue system; but in 1793 
Lord Cornwallis, who perceived with concern the oppressive 
exactions of those charged with the collection of the revenue, 
and who appreciated the great disadvantages of the system 
which subdivided all arable land among very small holders, 
devised a remedial system, which, after careful examination 
and much discussion, was applied to Lower Bengal. Under 
the new regulations, the zemindars, who had been previously 
merely collectors of revenue, were erected into proprietors, 
the Company divesting itself in their favour of the fee vested 
in it, on condition of their paying yearly the same amount of 
revenue which they had previously furnished as tax-collectors, 
provided that, in case of failure in the payment, the land 
should revert to the Company. This was the only restriction 
on the arrangement, which has, .therefore, been known as the 
" perpetual settlement." The hopes and expectations of Lord 
Cornwallis were, that the zemindars, being thus erected into 
great and independent landholders similar to those in England, 
would find it their interest to give their chief attention to the 
improvement and development of their property, and that the 
condition of the ryuts would thus be bettered more expedi- 
tiously and effectually than could be done directly, while, at 
the same time, the zemindars, being a numerous and wealthy 
body, with a great stake in public tranquillity, would be an 
important defence to the British power. Never were plans 
more hopelessly disappointed. Lord Cornwallis and his advi- 
sers had not taken into account the narrow-minded avarice of 
the native character, and were mortified by finding that 
zemindars continued, as before, mere tax-gatherers and usurers, 
the only change in their position being that they had now 
acquired unlimitecl power of extortion, while the ryut was 
now without protection, or power of appeal, against those 
who had been elevated from tax-gatherers into landlords. 
This settlement, as before remarked, was, by its terms, per- 
petual, and, therefore, continues to the present day in opera- 
tion in Bengal. The amehorations which have been introduced 
are not very numerous, from the fact of government having 



464 The Indian Empire. 

so entirely divested itself of control over the zemindars. The 
principal provisions are, to secure the careful education of all 
zemindars, wards of government, during minority ; to require 
every landlord to give each ryut a written agreement, speci- 
fying the amount of rent and conditions of tenure, and to 
make these agreements legally binding. The Bengal Zemin- 
daree system must, however, be confessed a failure, and its 
worst feature is its permanent character. In all the later set- 
tlements of land, it has been taken, not as a guide, but as a 
warning. How much it is inferior to the system now em- 
ployed in other parts of the country, appears from the fact 
that, when Cuttak, which is in Bengal, but was not included 
in the " permanent settlement," was lately surveyed, and its 
land-tenure arranged on the " Village System," the value of the 
land at once rose from twenty-five to fifty per cent. 

We have now described the Zemindaree system. We next 
come to the Byutwaree system, introduced into Madras sub- 
sequently to the " permanent settlement " in Bengal. Sir 
Thomas Munro, its author, had been much struck with the 
wretched condition of the ryuts in Bengal, ground down by 
an unrestrained landlord who came between the actual culti- 
vators and the government, and reaped all the profits of the 
arrangement. He therefore devised the Madras system, 
which allows of no middlemen. Under it the cultivator hires 
his land, each year, directly from government, jDaying accor- 
ding to the value of the soil, which was determined by a most 
careful survey, and fixed, in an ascending scale, from yd to 70 
shillings an acre per annum. Under this system, the actual 
cultivator, and not a great landlord, is looked upon as the 
proprietor of the soil, subject to the payment of his yearly 
tax. In the words of the last report of the Madras goveni- 
ment, ''- the ryut has all the benefits of a j)e»petual lease, Avith- 
out its responsibilities, inasmuch as he can, at any moment, 
throw up his lands, but cannot be ejected so long as he pays 
his dues." The great evil of this system was the want of any 
permanence in the arrangement between the ryut and govern- 
ment, and the great intricacy and complexity of the plan for 
determining the annual rent. In the administration of it, aU 



Revenue and Wealth of India. 465 

the details must be entrusted to native officials, since they are 
too numerous for the attention of any European collector; 
and the Ryutwaree system, in addition to its other disadvan- 
tages, is therefore peculiarly liable to all those abuses which 
prevail wherever native agency has to be employed. The 
principal improvements are the following : in the first years 
of the arrangement the rent of land was raised in proportion 
to the value of the crop cultivated ; but since 1837 no increase 
of the rent is allowed, but the ryut reaps the full benefit of 
any more valuable crop than that provided for in his original 
rent w^hich his land will produce. Formerly all improve- 
ments, such as wells, or irrigating machines, increased the rent 
after a certain number of years, during which the advantages 
derived from their use were calculated to repay the cost of 
construction. Now, the ryut has the undivided benefit of all 
his improvements. The last and greatest amelioration in the 
condition of the Madras ryuts, is the great reduction which 
has taken place in the rents. And this reduction, far from 
proving a sacrifice to government, has resulted in their advan- 
tage, from the impulse and extension it has given to agri- 
culture. 

Both of these systems, the Zemindaree, and the Ryutwaree, 
have their great disadvantages ; they were both crude experi- 
ments, made by men with the best intentions, but ignorant of 
the customs of the people for whom they were legislating. It 
remains for us to discuss the " Village System," a modified 
form of which has always been the tenure in the Bombay 
Presidency, and w^hich has been universally introduced into 
all the lately-acquired territory, the North Western Provinces, 
the Punjab, and Sind. The Zemindaree tenure assumed the 
proprietorship to be vested in the zemindars, subject to gov- 
ernment taxation ; the Ryutwaree system assumed the same 
thing for the ryut. Longer experience, and a more careful 
study of native customs, showed both these views to be in- 
correct, and that the property in the soil throughout the 
greater part of India, resides neither in the zemindar nor in 
the ryut, but in the village cominunity. The village commu- 
nities all possess a regular organization, with hereditary muni- 

20* 



466 The Indian Empire. 

cipal officers. They may be said to be the only Hindoo insti- 
tion now existing, and have remained, probably, much in 
their present condition for hundreds, if not thousands of years. 
The surveys, preparatory to the settlement of the North 
Western Provinces, occupied ten years, ending in 1844, and 
cost £500,000 sterling. It is much the best system for col- 
lecting the land rent that has been tried, not only because it 
is the natural plan, and consonant with the policy of Hindoo 
law and the customs of the natives ; but because in its admin- 
istration a much broader view has been taken of the real advan- 
tages to government than that which prevailed at the time when 
the other land-tenures were fixed ; and the policy followed in 
this assessment is to encourage cultivation by liberahty, rather 
than to hinder the extension of agriculture by heavy rents. 
The practical operation of the " Village System " is as follows : 
the village, through its head men, makes a bargain with the gov- 
ernment collector for a certain amount of land, which is subse- 
quently subdivided among the several cultivators living in the 
village. The collector is assisted in determining the rent by the 
records of the survey, before mentioned, which includes the 
quality of the soil, &c. From these statistics, and the best in- 
formation he can derive from the cultivators and on the spot, 
he fixes the average yield of the land. He then deducts from 
the average gross yield an amount representing the expenses 
of cultivation and the wages of the cultivators ; or, in other 
words, allows for the capital and. labour bestowed by the vil- 
lagers upon the land. The remainder, or net yield of the 
land, gives what would be a fair rent to government, and may 
be stated at one quarter of the gross produce, being thus less 
than the amount fixed by the Emperor Akbur, which was 
considered a very low standard. When the net yield of the 
land is determined as above, two-thirds of it are fixed as the 
government demand for rent and taxes. The remaining third 
is a premium on extended cultivation . The land-tax is thus 
equal to about one-sixth of the produce of the soil — being 
lower than it ever was under any previous government. The 
assessment once fixed continues for thirty years. At the ex- 
piration of that time, if the net produce is found to have in- 



Revenue and Wealth of India. 467 

creased, the rent is raised, but in a proportion inferior to the 
ratio of increase in the value of the crops. This system is 
found to work most admirably. The condition of the ryuts, 
and the cultivation of the soil is improving, and a revenue of 
£4,000,000 sterling is collected without delay, and rarely by 
coercive processes. If any one is dissatisfied with the Com- 
jDany's government, and thinks it inferior to that of native 
princes, let him compare the condition of the j^eople in the 
North Western Provinces with that of the inhabitants of the 
kuigdom of Oude, which is the garden of India as regards 
natural advantages, but has been ruined by the misrule of ig- 
norant, tyi'annical, and profligate piiuces. 

So great was the success of the village system in the North 
Western Provinces, that it was introduced into the Punjab 
immediately after the conquest of that territory. The main 
features of the original plan were left unchanged, but the 
details were carried out with somewhat more liberality, so 
that the proportion of the crops paid to government may be 
placed at from one-ninth to one-sixth of the gross jdeld. The 
whole amount of the land revenue has been diminished twenty- 
five per cent, since the Punjab came into the hands of the 
British, although the number of cultivators has increased ; and 
the advantages arising to the ryuts from this change of 
masters, will be even more aj^parent when we consider the 
immense extortions which were practised upon them by the 
subordinates, charged with the collection of the revenue, 
under the former governments. The good results of this 
system are even more remarkable in the Punjab than else- 
where. This province now enjoys peace and security, instead 
of perpetual anarchy and war. A rapid increase has taken 
place in cultivation and production. Although a new territory, 
only acquired in 1 849, and inhabited by the most warlike race 
in India, which formerly cherished the fiercest enmity against 
the British, yet so great was the general feehng of content, 
that the Punjab became the base of operations for the reco- 
very of Hindoostan ; and the Seekhs, so long and so lately in 
arms against the English, made an important part of the force 
employed in subduing the mutinous army of Bengal. 



468 The Indian Empire. 

To sum up the comparison of the old native land-tenure, 
with the improved system in force under the Enghsh : it ap- 
•|)ears that, under the native governments, the rents were 
oppressive and variable, all improvements were overcharged 
in re-assessing the land, and the greatest extortion was exer- 
cised in the collection of the tax ; under the new system, all 
rights and tenures are perfectly defined, the leases are suffi- 
ciently long to encourage improvements, which are not reckoned 
at their full value in re-assessment, and m every instance where 
large outstanding balances and increased difficulty of realiza- 
tion showed the rents to be excessive, they have been lowered. 
For a long time the oppressive taxes imposed by the former 
native rulers, remained unchanged under the Company's 
government ; but experience showed the disadvantage of any 
tax so heavy as to check production, and the land-rents have, 
for years, been everywhere progressively diminished where 
they were formerly too large, within the older possessions of 
the Company. In the new territories, the village system has 
been everywhere introduced, the liberal features of which have 
been dwelt upon above. Moderate as is the demand of 
government under this system, it has been still further re- 
duced lately, and in all territory, the land-tenure of which 
shall be hereafter settled, government will require only one 
half of the net produce, an amount equal on the average to 
one-eighth of the gross produce. 

In reading this account of the various land-tenures in India, 
it may strike some persons that it would be advantageous if 
the fee of the soil were transferred to the actual cultivators. 
This plan, however, would be utterly impracticable. In the 
first place, the whole capital of the country is in the hands of 
the bankers, who would soon become proprietors of ail the 
soil, and make infinitely worse landlords than any government. 
Secondly, even it' this certain evil could be avoided, such a 
transfer would reduce the production of the country by 
diminishing those incentives to labour, which even now ope- 
rate but feebly upon the indolent native of India. 

The revenue of India is about twenty-four millions and a 
half sterling. Of this sum more than one half is drawn from 



Revenue and Wealth of India. 469 

the land-tax. The rest is raised by the customs, opium mono- 
poly, and by the imposts on salt, tobacco, spirituous liquors, 
and other articles of luxury. The net product of the opium 
monopoly is two millions and a half sterling per annum. This 
may be considered a tax upon the Chinese, and so much 
gained by the Indian tax-payers. 

The expenses of the government, m time of peace, nearly 
balance the receipts, but the wars into which the Comj^any 
has been constantly forced, have necessitated repeated loans, 
the payment of the interest on which absorbs one-eighth of 
the revenue, and occasions a constant deficit in the budget. 

The amount of the revenue, above mentioned, when divided 
by the number of inhabitants, gives only eighty-four cents for 
each person. This appears very light taxation, and will appear 
still lighter when it is recollected that more than one half of 
this sum represents, not taxes j^roper, but the rent of land, 
which, in any other country, would go into the pockets of 
private individuals. Yet the taxes are probably nearly as 
heavy as the country could bear under any other system ; for 
India is a poor country ^ ^''poorer^'^ in the words of Lord 
Macaulay, " than the poorest countries in Europe.^'' Notwith- 
standing the old, and almost inveterate, belief in the wealth 
of the Indies, it is well for us at the present day to recognise 
this fact. The mass of the population have no property at all. 
The soil is all in the hands of the sovereign ; the disposable 
capital is held by a limited number of bankers and tradesmen. 
This concentration of all capital in the hands of a few persons 
enables them to make a show quite disproportioned to the 
general wealth of the country, and from this are derived the 
very erroneous impressions that have so extensively prevailed 
with regard to the great wealth of oriental nations. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

THE REVOLT. 

Indian Eebellion not a matter of Surprise — Eevolutions and Eebellions common under 
Native Governments — Eebellion did not originate among the People — Character of 
the old Native Governments — Nature of the English Conquest, and Character of 
their Eule — Evidence that the Eebellion was not a Movement of the People — The 
Eebellion was not in its Origin a Military Mutiny — The real Instigators were the 
Moosulman Princes — It was the dying Effort of Islamism — Character of the Mahom- 
medan Population of India — Favourable Circumstances for the Eebel Leaders — 
Abortive Attempts of the Eebels to arouse the Mass of the Population — The 
Moosulman Character of the Movement evident in its Development — Atrocities — 
Noble Stand of the English — The Eevolt in Oude — Sympathies of the Population of 
India — The Disaffected Classes — The probable Eesult of the Eebellion if it had not 
been restrained. 

A EEVOLUTiON IS no new thing in India. The whole history 
of that country under its native princes, before the establish- 
ment of the English power, is a narrative of usurpations, 
revolts and rebellions. The Enghsh government is the only 
power that has ever ruled for a hundred years without such 
attempts being made against its existence, and the fact of a 
rebelhon having finally broken out against it, should not, 
therefore, be taken a priori as a proof of the injustice of its 
policy, or the tyranny of its administration. The student of 
Indian history wiU rather wonder that fifty thousand men, 
from a country situated on the other side of the world, should 
by any course of government, or any rule however wise, have 
maintained, for so long a time, an order before unknown, and 
exacted a imiversal obedience never before given to any sove- 
reign in India ; that they should have maintained this order 
and exacted this obedience from one hundred and eighty 
millions of people, differing from them and each other in 
language, religion, and every bond of sympathy, and com- 
prising nations and classes whose whole employment and 



The Revolt. 



471 



aggrandizement had, before their time, been derived from 
public conquest or private pillage. 

The rebellion, however, is a fact, and as it has been consid- 
ered in Europe, however unjustly, the eoi'perhnentu'tn crucis 
of English policy in India, it is interesting to investigate what 
were the real objects and aims of the movement. Befoie 
doing so, however, it will be well briefly to examine some 
opinions that have generally obtained credence, both in 
England and this country. 

In the first place we are met by a theory that the revolt 
was a popular revolution, like the great movement wdiich in 
the end of the last century, overthrew the Bourbon dynasty 
in France, or like the universal uprising in America which 
delivered our nation from transatlantic domination. 

This theory, then, represents the rebellion as an attempt, on 
the part of the downtrodden masses, to throw ofl" the op- 
pressive and hated yoke of the stranger. That this should be 
believed, was, perhaps not unnatural, and yet this very belief 
shows what entire ignorance prevails with regard to India and 
its inhabitants. Any one who has read Indian history, knows 
that the natives have always been " under the yoke of the 
stranger ;" that when it was heaviest, it never excited a mur- 
mur ; and that no popular resistance has ever been called 
forth, even by the most grinding tyranny. The " rights of 
man" are abstractions which the oriental mind has never 
grasped. It looks upon tyranny as the normal manifestation 
of power, and the best evidence of a strength which it is dan- 
gerous to resist. 

The people of India, then, the masses of the population, 
never could or would rebel ; but even supposing that they had 
that consciousness of their rights, and that disposition to resist 
infringements upon them, which, even in Europe, only prevail 
in a very difierent condition of society, it is quite incredible 
that they should rebel under the English government, when 
they had endured, uncomplainingly, centuries of oppression 
from other rulers. 

Some people, however, imagine that the real grievance has 
been annexation, and the substitution of the Company's 



472 The Indian Empire. 

government in place of native princes, for, say they, " After 
all the English are foreigners, and their rule, even if more 
lenient, must be as distasteful to the people, as foreign rulers 
always are. There can never be towards them the same sym- 
pathy as exists with native governments, which, even if 
harsher, are yet composed of men of the same race, who have 
ruled the country for centuries, and secured that popular alle- 
giance which is never paid to any but an ancient dynasty." 

This argument, which is advanced by the members of an in- 
fluential party, proceeds upon assumptions quite as false as 
the first, though entirely different. The ancient native dy- 
nasties, ruling peacefully over millions of attached subjects, are 
a complete myth. India has always been a prey to adven- 
turers of one kind or another, of whom the most successful 
occupied for the time, the seat of authority. Violence was 
their passport to the capital ; violence, the policy of their 
government ; and by violence, they were overthrown to give 
place to some other, who gained and abused his power in the 
same way.'^ The position of a native prince was thus very 
similar to that of the priest of Diana, at Aricia : 

" The Priest who slew the slayer 
And shall himself be slain." 



* I may here cite an instance of this state of things from very recent his- 
tory of the Punjab, a territory that has since, fortunately for itself, been an- 
nexed by the English. "When Runjeet Singh died, he was succeeded by his 
son, Khurruk Singh, who was imbecile and poisoned by his son, Nao Mhal 
Singh, who, returning from his father's funeral pyre, was grievously, if not 
mortally wounded by a beam which fell upon him, perhaps by chance, in 
passing under a lofty gateway. When wounded, he was taken care of by the 
two Eajpoot brothers, whom that old tyrant Runjeet Singh had fallen in love 
with, and bought when they were slaves — Groolab Singh and Dhyan Singh. 
They suffered no one to enter his chamber until he was dead — a consumma- 
tion in which they are supposed to have assisted. His mother, Ranee Kour 
Chand, then claimed the supreme power, which was contested by Sheer Singh 
a pseudo-son of Runjeet. The Ranee was beaten to death by her slave girls, 
who threw her body out of the window. Sheer Singh then became king, but 
was assassinated at a review by Sirdar Ajeet Singh, at the instigation of Dhyan 
Singh. His little son was also sought out and murdered. The two conspir- 
ators returned to the city together in a carriage, and Ajeet, having ' ' his hand 



The Revolt. 



473 



It thus happened that almost all the native princes of India 
were different in nation ahty, and many of them in reUgion 
also, from the people whom they governed. Their rule was 
invariably tyrannous, oppressive, and extortionate. They 
treated their subjects as prisoners of war, and never expected 
any return of gratitude or devotion. A change of dynasty 
never excited the sympathy of the people, far less did it call 
forth any active efforts. They stood patient and motionless, 
and beheld one tyrant succeed another, without emotion and 
without interest. 

When the East India Company commenced their career of 
conquest, they found the whole country under the control of 
the Maharattas, a nation of robbers, who had subjugated all 
India, and subdued the governors of the country, who were 
themselves mostly rebels against the once paramount au- 
thority of the Mogul Emperor, who, in turn, derived his 
power from the right of conquest only. 

The efforts of the English were against the Maharattas, and 
when they had delivered the country from them, no one could 
expect that they would restore the booty to the j)revious set 
of robbers who had held it ; and none would be more unwil- 
ling to consent to such an arrangement than the Hindoo 
population, who, while they had not the ability to govern 
themselves, or the resolution and pluck to choose and support 
any one set of masters, must still be supposed to have a pre- 
ference for that government under which there was the least 
oppression and extortion. And this was actually the character 
of the Enghsh conquest of India. They took the sovereign 
power not from the people, or from a popular government, but 
from upstart tyrants who were mostly foreign to the soil 

in," stabbed Dhyan Singh, as they passed under a gateway. He was pur- 
sued and killed by Hira Singh, the son of Dhyan. Kanee Chanda now 
brought forward Dhuleep Singh, as a son of Eunjeet, but her brother, having 
caused the only real son of Runjeet then Hving, Peshora Singh, to be cut in 
pieces and cast down a wall at Attok, the troops became enraged and ordered 
him to come to a review. In vain he scattered gold and bangles among them, 
and entreated them to spare his life, in vain the Ranee accompanied hkn, and 
joined in his prayers ; one volley missed him, the second brought him down. 



474 The Indian Empire. 

whicli they governed. They gave the people what they had 
never before possessed ; a permanent government which re- 
spected hfe and property ; officials free from extortion and 
corruption, and untrained to oppression; and a mild and 
impartial system of law and taxation. They scrupulously 
respected national religion, and even went so far as to support, 
in a few instances, the idolatrous worship of its subjects. The 
civil laws of the country founded on the religious codes, were 
left unchanged, although in every respect conflicting and 
unwieldly, in order not to offend national prejudice. The 
criminal code was so modified as to become simple in ad- 
ministration, and lenient, instead of ferociously cruel in its 
punishments. Every effort, every sacrifice was made to 
secure the attachment of the people, and the policy of the 
Company was to develope peacefully the resources of the 
country, and thus indirectly benefit themselves, rather than to 
seek aggrandizement and wealth by an indiscriminate system 
of cruel extortion and oppression, as had been the custom of 
all previous conquerors. 

The native does not ask for liberty, or desire it. He has no 
spirit of independence, and when without a master will vol- 
untarily choose one. All that he asks of government is, that 
they should respect his religious prejudices, that justice should 
be equally administered, and the taxes not oppressive. It is, 
perhaps, too much to say that this is what they ask / for they 
do not ask or expect anything but that he who has the power 
will use it to the uttermost for his advantage, as any one of 
themselves would do in his place. But the whole amount of 
what they pray for is, that they should be respected in then- 
superstitions, and, if possible, in their property also. 

It cannot be denied that the English government was de- 
spotic and oppressive. It was despotic, because the people 
can be ruled in no other way. It was oppressive, because 
there was a necessity for employing native subordinates who 
cannot be prevented from abusing the power with which they 
are entrusted. But it was incomparably better in every re- 
spect than any previous rule. India is no longer desolated by 
the Maharattas laying waste towns and villages with fire and 



The Revolt. 475 

sword. The natives are no longer ruined by the systematic 
and grinding oppression of their Moosulman rulers. The villa- 
gers are no longer exposed to murder and pillage by periodical 
inroads of robber bands, as they were under the old system of 
anarchy and misrule. Every man's head is now safe on his 
shoulders, and every man's property is secure from the violence 
of government or individuals. 

It might thus be concluded, purely from a priori rea- 
soning : 

(1st.) That, judging from the whole past history of India, 
no conceivable tyranny or disregard of their rights could 
arouse resistance, or excite an insurrection among the culti- 
vators of the soil and other industrious classes, who form 
by iar the greatest mass of the population ; and therefore 
that a popular rebellion^ in the proper sense of the ^vords, 
would be in the highest degree improbable, if not impos- 
sible. 

(2d.) That, even granting that circumstances might arise 
which would cause a general popular rising, there were no 
such causes to account for this rebellion. 

So much for the a priori reasoning, which, after all, is always 
more or less liable to error. But when we come to the a pos- 
teriori proof it is no longer possible to doubt. If it was a 
popular movement, why did it extend over only one-third of 
India ? Why did it arise in that very part of the country 
where the administration was most perfect, and why was the 
Madras Presidency, the worst governed part of the British 
dominions, the most tranquil throughout the disturbances ? 
If the movement was occasioned by annexation, why were 
ISTagpoor, and the Punjab, with its warlike inhabitants, tranquU, 
while Oude was in flames ? Why has nearly the whole revenue 
been paid punctually, when there was no power to enforce it ? 
and why have the EngHsh army, wherever they went, been as 
well provided with transport and provisions as if they were 
in a settled and peaceful country ? 

In all its outward manifestations, and especially at the be- 
ginning, the revolt has been purely military. When we heard 
of an outbreak, it was not the revolt of a district, but the mu- 



47^ The Indian Empire. 

tiny of a regiment. "When the mutineers departed, all was 
again quiet and orderly. The enemies which the English 
troops have had to fight had been regularly-organized regi- 
ments, many of them dressed in the English uniform, not vast 
and ill-disciplined bodies of populace. The mutineers, where- 
ever they passed, have robbed the property of the shop-keepers 
and rich men, and mercilessly levied contributions on the 
miserable cultivators. The disturbed districts were the mili- 
tary stations, and wherever there were no mutinous soldiers 
things went on as if nothing was occurring elsewhere. 

As for the assertion that, although the revolt was purely 
military, it was yet a real popular movement, since the army 
was the only body that had the power to offer resistance to 
government, and in doing so they were representatives of 
the nation at large ; such an explanation is quite inadmissible, 
as the mutiny was confined to the Bengal army, and did not 
extend to the troops of Bombay or Madras, or to the Punjab 
forces, which were all certainly quite as much representatives 
of their respective parts of the country. Besides which, we 
should in such a case expect to find the populace sympathising 
openly with their valiant defenders ; and it shows an entire 
misconception of the sepoy character to suppose that they 
care for any rights, privileges, and interests, except their own. 

Was the revolt, then, purely military, that is, did it origi- 
nate in the army ? and has it been entirely confined to them ? 
This has been the view of many persons, though not in India, 
and is quite as wrong as the theory that the rebellion origi- 
nated among the people, though it is not so absurd, and does 
not show such ignorance of the country. In the first place, it 
is quite clear that the revolt has not been confined to those 
who were soldiers of the Company when the disturbances 
began. 'New levies have been raised to supply the losses of 
war, and have been disciplined and organized into regiments 
on the European plan. This, to be sure, does not divest the 
mutiny of its military character, as the new recruits came 
from the same soldier castes that furnished the original re- 
volters, and were brothers and friends of the mutinous 
sepoys. This explanation, however, will not reach the case 



The Revolt. 



477 



of Oude and other districts, where the feudal chiefs have 
risen with their followers and gone to swell the ranks of the 
rebels. Moreover, it is not to be concealed that India is filled 
with classes discontented mth British rule, and lono-insf for a 
restoration of the anarchy on which they or their ancestors 
grew fat, and if the rebelUon had been a little more successful 
in the beginning, it is probable that the whole peninsula 
would, before now, have been jDlunged in universal revolt. 
Still, it is quite clear that all these movements on the part of 
the non-military classes did not precede, but followed the 
mutiny of the army, which was their cause and occasion. The 
first part of the question is, therefore, still unanswered — did 
the rebellion originate in the army ? To this we may now 
answer certainly, no ; the developments and disclosures that 
have lately taken place have shown that the real instigators 
and ringleaders were not in the ranks of the army, but were the 
same individuals upon whom public suspicion in India has all 
along been fixed. All who knew the character of the sepoys 
felt sure that they never could have conceived, or carried out 
unitedly, so vast a scheme. They were too ignorant, too inac- 
tive, too submissive, and too distrustful of each other. Beside 
which, they were nearly the only class in all India who had iio 
reasonable pretext for discontent. In fact, they had been 
ruined by too much pay and petting. The whole Bengal 
army was demoralized. They were in a fit condition to lend 
themselves readily to the plots of their seducers, who pro- 
mised them as large pay, and as luxurious living, as those of 
their English officers and governors. 

There is now no doubt that the rebellion was set on foot by 
the deposed Mahommedan princes, pensioners on the Com- 
pany's bounty, and the movement may be looked on as the 
expiring efibrt of Islamism to regain its lost supremacy in 
India. The evidence given on the trial of the King of Delhi 
shows that the rebellion was a concerted movement of the 
Moosulman princes ; that the plan was communicated to the 
Shah of Persia, and perhaps also to the Sultan of Turkey; 
and that the occupation of Herat by the former, an act 
which occasioned the Persian war, was really only a feint 



478 The Indian Empire. 

to draw away British troops from India, the scene of the main 
action. In this plot nearly all the Moosulman princes were 
implicated, and especially Ali Nakhi Khan, the prime minis- 
ter of the late King of Oude, is pointed out as having taken a 
most active part, and is by many suspected of being the origi- 
nator of the whole thing. With such consummate skill, how- 
ever, has he woven the threads and meshes of the plot that 
not a trace remains to mark where he has passed. Almost 
the same may be said of many of the other conspirators. 
Though the evidence against them amounts to a moral cer- 
tainty, it is to be feared that it will not be sufficient to secure 
any legal punishment. There is too much secrecy around 
every action of a native for the true details of the conspiracy 
and the real agents ever to become thoroughly known. So 
little confidence have natives in each other that it is probable 
that the real extent and aims of the movement, and even the 
day on which it was to break out, were, until the last mo- 
ment, known only to a very few, if they were not concealed 
in the breast of a single individual. 

This rebellion, originated by Mahommedan princes, called 
out the religious and natural sympathies of all the Moosulman s 
in India. They are a very numerous class, forming from one- 
twelfth to one-tenth of the population, and numbering, there- 
fore, from 15 to 18 millions. They had been for centuries the 
dominant race, masters of the soil and people, and naturally 
felt disgusted at being placed by the English on a level with 
the despised Hindoo. They have always hoped and prayed 
for the restoration of Islam, and the recovery of that position 
of superiority of which they had been so largely deprived. 
As to theii" origin, they are mostly descendants of the off- 
scouring and camp-followers of the various invading armies 
that have at different times ravaged and depopulated India. 
They do not, however, retain any of the manly qualities of 
their Afghan or Tartar ancestors, but by constant inter-mar- 
riages with the Hindoos have assimilated to them in all re- 
spects, even adopting the absurd and burdensome restrictions 
of caste. Low as is the moral character of the Hindoos, that 
of the Moosulmans is still lower. They are more licentious, 



The Revolt. 479 

if possible more treacherous, and possess besides indomitable 
pride of nationality and unreasoning fanaticism — two qualities 
not found in the Hindoo. The Mahommedans in India have 
always looked upon themselves as a superior race. They call 
themselves the sipahee-log, or warrior people, and hold that 
the Empire should be in their hands by the right of descent 
and religion. Their pride prevents their earning a livelihood 
by manual labour, and consequently the only means of sup- 
port open to them are private service, enlistment in the army, 
or situations under government. The last employment has 
always been considered the best, both as being the most hon- 
ourable and as giving great opportunities of extortion and 
plunder, though in this respect their gains were diminished by 
the vigilance of their English superiors. 

The diminution of the number of government servants, 
which took place under English rule ; the appointment of 
great numbers of Hindoos to office ; and the general preva- 
lence of peace, and disbanding of the irregular soldiery which 
had sprung up under the anarchy of native rule, threw out of 
employment a large number of this proud, lazy, fawning, un- 
scrupulous and crafty population; and the mutiny of the Ben- 
gal army was a grand scheme to turn the military establish- 
ment of the English against themselves, and to restore the 
supremacy of the Mahommedan religion and the Moosulman 
nation. In this scheme the indolent and simple sepoys w^ere 
merely the catspaws of others, and would have been dis- 
carded when no longer needed. 

No circumstances could appear more favourable for the rebel 
leaders than the condition of India at the time of the outbreak. 
The whole Mahommedan population would certainly lend 
theu' sympathies and most of them would give active coopera- 
tion. The sepoy army of Bengal, with their tremendous pride 
of caste, and the opinion of their own power, exalted by years 
of petting and indulgence, and the disuse of all punishment, 
furnished a ready and powerful means of begmning the dis- 
turbance. Besides them there were immense classes, such as 
the predatory chiefs, the warlike tribes, and the robber castes 
of India, who had been dormant under EngUsh rule, but 



480 The Indian Empire. 

would at once emerge into activity when order was disturbed, 
and thus indirectly aid the plans of the Moosulman agitators 
by diverting the efforts of their opponents. 

To resist all these immensely powerful and numerous ene- 
mies, there were not over twenty thousand English soldiers, 
and those not concentrated upon any one point, but scattered 
here and there in little bodies over thousands of miles, each 
separate company in the midst of thousands of the mutinous 
or disaffected classes. With such odds it is not wonderful 
that the mutiny spread as it did. The only matter of surprise 
is that a single Englishman was left alive in all the North- 
country ; and if the population could only have been induced 
to join, it would have been impossible for one man to escape. 

The plan employed by the Moosulman leaders for exciting 
the army to mutiny, was also used by them with the view of 
arousing the sympathies of the general population. In both 
cases they appealed to the only sentiment of the Hindoo, on 
which they could rely for the purpose — namely, the prejudices 
of caste. In the case of the army, who were only looking for 
an excuse to revolt, this device succeeded perfectly. With 
the people, who ask for nothing but quiet, it totally failed. 
The proclamations of the rebel leaders are certainly remark- 
able productions ; but the most curious feature of them is that 
they never say one word about the injustice of annexation, or 
the misgovernment of the English, knowing that such charges, 
even if true, would have no effect on the native population, 
who would look on such acts as the most natural way of 
using power. The whole tenor of the proclamations, where- 
ever issued, consists of appeals to religion and caste, and the 
only charges against the English are based upon assumed in- 
tentions to interfere with these institutions. 

In the explosion of the mutiny, its Moosulman charactejr 
became clearly manifest. The plan was to exterminate the 
English at every station, and then unite all the rebel forces at 
Delhi, the sacred city of Indian Mahommedans, and the seat 
of the old Mogul Emperors, the last descendant of whom was 
recognized as the new sovereign. In the fearful atrocities* 
* The fiendish acts committed by the mutineers perhaps excited even more 



The Revolt. 481 

which accompanied the work of extermination, the Mahom- 
medan cavahy, who had for years been a by-word and jest 
for their arrant cowardice, showed themselves the cruellest 
and most merciless. Wherever there was a Moosulraan city, 
there the spirit of revolt was most virulent. Even in places 
beyond the actual circle of revolt, like the city of Poonah, in 
the Dekkun, this feeling was unmistakeably evident. On the 
other hand, the mass of the population who are Hindoos, and 
the Hindoo rajahs, over two hundred in number, were faithful 
almost to a man. Too much stress, however, must not be laid 
on this fidelity of the rajahs, as it may be attributed more to a 
dislike of a Moosulman sovereign than to any loyalty to the 
English ; and if the Moosulmans had succeeded in overcoming 
the English, the Hindoo princes would probably have begun 
war on their own account. 

There is no prouder page in the History of England than 
the subjugation of this rebellion. The English were a mere 
handful of men in comparison with the hordes of mutineers 
and the millions of disaffected classes by whom they were sur- 
rounded. They were far away from all help ; while their ad- 
versaries were on their own ground, abundantly supplied with 

astonishment than horror in Europe. People could not believe that such un- 
sparing cruelty and brutal capacity for enjoying the tortures of their enemies, 
existed at the present day, in any members of the human family, however 
degraded. They seem to have forgotten that the sepoys were heathens, of 
whom it is said that " their tender mercies are cruel;" and that they are quite 
ignorant of those mitigations which Christianity alone has introduced into 
war. In fact, cruelty and torture have always been features of Oriental war- 
fare, and atrocities even greater than those of Meeruth, Delhi and Cawnpoor, 
were daily occurrences in the revenue- collections of native states ; and have 
always been practised in the predatory excursions of the feudal chiefs and 
robber-tribes. Even in Bengal such outrages were ordinary accompaniments 
of a dukoitee robbery. It is scarce three hundred years since Rome was 
taken by Bourbon, when the inhabitants were treated with nearly as much 
brutality. The pillage of the "chateaux" during the French revolution will 
furnish cases of almost as much horror, and the sack of various cities by the 
Israehtes, as narrated in the Bible, shows the same pitiless extermination of 
old and young, though I believe no mention is made of tortures. If such 
things could be done by Jews and Christians, we should at least not be sur- 
prised at them in heathens. 

21 



I 



482 The Indian Empire. 

arms and ammunition, and defended by fortifications of great 
strength ; and yet they did not even stand upon the defensive, 
but at once began an aggressive warfare. They not only 
met unshaken the overwhehning tide of revolt, but actually 
drove it back ; and before a single British soldier could come 
to the rescue from England they had checked the insurrection at 
its head, had taken the Imperial city, captured the rebel Em- 
peror, and saved India from a general rebellion ; for there can 
be little doubt that had the movement succeeded in the north, 
the whole Pepinsula would soon have been in flames. 

From Delhi the mutineers retreated to Lucknow, which is 
tlie second great Mahommedan city of India, where their 
forces were swelled by fresh levies, and their strength in- 
creased by the assistance of the Talookdars, Zemindars, and 
other feudal chieftains. 

The conduct of these men is a type of what would have 
been the course of the whole class to which they belong, if 
more success had attended the first rising. The Talookdars 
and Zemindars of Oude were feudal chieftains, who had grown 
rich by the anarchy v>diich prevailed during the old govern- 
ment. Their estates were obtained by violence and fraud ; 
they lived by plunder and cruelty ; acknowledged no law or 
authority, and never paid taxes to the king without standing a 
regular siege. To maintain this life they were surrounded by 
armed followers, who v>^ere generally the greatest rascals in 
the country. Indeed, a usual method of recruiting was to 
break open the nearest jail and enlist the convicts. The of- 
fence of the English government in tlie eyes of these barons, 
was not the abstract wrong of annexing Oude, for few people 
care less for wrong or right, abstract or concrete ; but that 
they had introduced a system which did not recognize their 
usurped titles to land, which established order and extinguished 
violence, and under which the tax-gatherer could not safely 
be resisted. 

I^ow the class to which these zgmindars belong exists all 
over India, and they have everywhere the same grievance. In 
other parts of the country they have been so long reduced to 
order and compelled to live respectable lives that their svrords 



The Revolt. 483 

have gro^ni rusty ; but if there had been any probability of 
success attending their efforts, they would have risen from 
one end of India to the other, and would have found no diffi- 
culty in obtaining followers among the dangerous^ that is, the 
unemployed classes, who form so large a part of the native 
population. 

The only class who have sympathized with the English du- 
rmg the disturbances are the bankers and capitalists, who 
would dread nothing so much as a restoration of native rule. 
The great mass of the population have been decidedly neutral, 
as they always have been under all changes. On the other 
hand all the disorderly classes have been inimical to the Eng- 
lish — some of them ojDcnly, like the zemindars of Oude, and 
the immense numbers of convicts whom it was the first care 
of the mutineers to release from jail ; others secretly, among 
whom have been all the Moosulmans, most of the native princes, 
the old feudal chieftains, the predatory tribes generally, and 
all the robbers, murderers and thieves, whether by caste or 
profession. 

If there had been force enough to crush the mutiny at 
Delhi, we should probably never have heard any more of it. 
If, on the other hand, there had not been force enough to 
check it there, all these classes would at once have broken 
into insurrection. What would have been evolved out of the 
chaos it is hard to see, but certainly it is very unlikely that 
the result would have been a restoration of the Mahommedan 
empire. The Indian Moosulmans are not what their ancestors 
were when they planted their feet so easily on the necks of 
the Hindoos. The Maharattas tore down the green flag of 
Islamism once, and would not see it again unfurled without a 
struggle for supremacy. The larger part of the military 
classes of India are Hindoos, and they would not be likely 
now to submit to a Mahommedan yoke which their fathers 
always wore uneasily and often resisted successfully. The end 
would probably have been the establishment of a great num- 
ber of small sovereigns ; not the old hereditary dynasties, for 
they are all effete and would soon disappear in the confusion. 
An era ^f anarchy would then be inauo-urated, such as existed 



484 The Indian Empire. 

when the country was first conquered by the English, and 
India would be again thrown back a century in her infinitely 
slow progress toward civilization, and would again be ripe for 
another name to be added to the long list of those who have 
conquered her. 



APPENDIX. 



^^Tazu ba tazu, Now ba now!" 



PERSIAN SONG OF THE NACH GIRLS. 



Opening Chorus. 



{Transposed from Bh.) 






1. Sing - er, be - gin your sweetest lay, Ev - er and ev - er 




- J ^ 1 



^^ 



p r ^ -^ 



fresh and gay ; Bring me the joy - in - spu' - ing wine, 




486 



Tazu ba tazu, Now ba now !" 



^ 



^P~**~)^P' 



f5={t:^ 



^ 



i ff f—M f 



^ ^ J. 



Ev er and ev - er fresh and fine, Ev - er and ev - er 




Verse. 



:]v: 



J 3_| -J -^ ^ j_J ^ '^ 



^ 4 ^—w 



itz: 



fresh and fine. Here, with a heart - al - lur - ing lass, 



S 









-mr • -^- 



^7 



~^~ ~ff~ 




■^ 



^ 



?5=|V=3i 



^ J- 



m tf' J^J 



^ 4 J zM. 



Mer - ri - ly let the moments pass, Kissing her red lips 




"^ Tazu ba tazu, Now ba now I " 



487 



3^-^U^^ 



1^E=S: 



-d J S 



yf\n\Q I may, Ev - er and ev - er fresh and gay. 

-K— ,' — .III 1 Nh 



^^^m 



f 



^t-j-^ 



^- -i- 



H 9 t 



» — »- 



■w- 



*=S: 



^=^ 



^ 



Chorus. 




^ l^ ^ \ U I 



Sing me, oh sing, your sweetest lay, Ev - er and ev - er 




t=^ 



g 



r-r 



^ 



r r \ ^ ^-^ 



^ 



fresh and gay ; Bring me the joy - in - spir - ing -vrine, 



^^^ 



-j ^i— I 



5: » -iJ. 



% 




m 



^ 



« — m — m — m- 



^^ 



$ 



488 



" Tazu ba tazu, Now ba now ! " 



m 



-|J>— 






:f=^ 



<al dsi — d — 'tBi- '■#' id r— 



f 



atz^ 



Ev-er and ev - er fresh and fine, Ev-er and ev - er fresh and fine. 

-f9-a>-fit—f9 — 10—1 — ! — rP-H — I — f™*""^ i N-i 




^d=i& 



m 



I 



B. 



<p| g| tf^ g|. 



"3i: 



■9-9^ 



^ 



■s. 



Lost is my heart, oh lady fair, 
Lost in your jet black locks of hair, 
Heavy with perfume, as is meet, 
Ever and ever new and sweet. 
Chorus. Sing me, &c. 

3. 

Still will I drink the cup I love, 
Happier here than saints above ; 
The blessed- in heaven long for wine 
Ever and ever fresh and fine. 
Chorus. Sing me, &c. 

4. 

Listen, oh breezes ! as you move 
Close by the dwelling of my love, 
Softly my words and song repeat, 
Ever and ever new and sweet. 
Chorus. Sing me, &c. 



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" " " Antique mor. 

Bums' Poetical Works. Cloth, 
Butler's Hudibras. Cloth, 
Campbell's Poetical Works. Cloth, 
Coleridge's Poetical Works. Cloth, 
Cowper's Poetical Works, 
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, . . . 
Dante's Poems. Cloth, .... 
Dryden's Poetical Works. Cloth, . . 
Fay (J. S.), Ulric ; or. The Voices, 
Goethe's Iphigenia in Tauris. Translated, 
Giliillan's Edition of the British Poets. 12 vols, 
published. Price per vol. cloth. 
Do. do. Calf, per vol, ... 
Griffith's (]Mattie) Poems, 
Hemans' Poetical Works. 2 vols. IGmo. 
Herbert's Poetical Works. 16mo. cloth, 
Keats' Poetical Works. Cloth, limo, 
Kirko White's Poetical Works, Cloth, , 
Lord's Poems. 1 vol. 12mo. . 

" Christ in Hades, limo. . . 
Milton's Paradise Lost. 18mo. . 

" Complete Poetical Works, . 
Moore's Poetical Works. 8vo. Illustrated, 

« « " Mor. extra, . 

Montgomery's Sacred Poems. 1 vol. 12mo, 
Pope's Poetical Works. 1 vol. IGmo. 
Southey'a Poetical Works. 1 vol. . 
Spenser's Faerie Queene. 1 vol. olotb, . 
Scott's Poetical Works. 1 vol. 

" Lady of the Lake. 16mo, , 

" Marmion, ..... 

" Lay of the Last Minstrel, . 
Shakspeare's Dramatic Works, 
TasBo's Jerusalem Delivered. 1 vol. 16mo, 
AVordsworlh (.W-)- The Prelude, . 



Beligious "Works. 



Arnold's Rugby School Sermons, . 
Anthon's Catechism on the Homilies, . 

" Early Catechism for Children 
Burnet's History of the Reformation. 3 vols. 

*' Thirty-Xine Articles, 



BO 
BO 
60 
50 
60 

1 00 
50 

1 00 
60 
SO 

• 00 

15 
15 

75 

1 00 

1 00 

50 

88 



00 

62 

1 50 

4 00 

1 50 



1 25 
7E 

3 50 
6 00 

2 00 
63 

3 00 
6 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 25 
1 00 
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1 00 
1 00 

75 
75 

1 00 

2 50 
75 

00 

1 00 
1 25 
1 00 

75 

75 

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1 00 

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75 
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1 00 

1 00 
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37 
25 

2 00 
1 00 
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60 

06 

06 

2 50 

2 00 



D. Appleton & Company's List of Jfew Works. 



4 00 
25 

1 00 
75 
■55 
87 
25 

1 13 
50 

1 00 

1 00 
75 
50 

2 00 
2 50 

75 

75 

2 50 

1 00 

75 

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38 

1 75 

1 75 

1 00 
75 

2 00 
2 00 

06 



Bradley's Family and ParUh. Sermons, . . 2 00 
.Cotter's Ma«s and Rubrics, .... 38 

Coil's Puritanism, 1 00 

Evans' Rectory of Valehead, .... 50 
Grayson's Tnie Theory of Christianity, . . 1 00 
Gresley on Preaching, , . . . . 1 25 
Griffin's Gospel its Ovvn Advocate, . . . 1 00 
Hecker's Book of the Soul, . . 
Hooker's Complete Works. 2 vols. 

James' Happiness, 

Junes on the Nature of EvO, . . . 

Jarvis' Rerply to Milner, .... 

Kingsley's Sacred Choir, 

Keble'a Christian Year, .... 

Layman's Letters to a Bishop, 

Logan's Sermons and Expository Lectures, 

Lyra ApostoUea, ..... 

Marshall's Notes on Episcopacy, 

Newman's Sermons and Subjects of the Day, 

" Essay on Christian Doctrine, . 
Ogilby on Lay Baptism, .... 
Pearson on the Creed, .... 
Pulpit Cyclopaedia and Mmisters' Companion, 
SeweU's Reading Preparatory to Confirmation, 
Southard's Mystery of Godliness, ? 
Sketches and Skeletons of Sermons, 
Spencer's Christian Instructed, 
Sherlock's Practical Christian, 
Sutton's Disce Vivere — Learn to Live, 
Swartz's Letters to my Godchild, . 
Trench's Notes on the Parables, . 

" Notes on the ISIiracles. 
Taylor's Holy Living and Dj'ing, . _ . 

" Episcopacy Asserted and Maintained, 
Tyng's Family Commentary, ... 
Walker's Sermons on Practical Subjects, 
Watson on Confirmation, .... 
Wilberforce's Manual for Communicants, 
Wilson's Lectures on Colossians, . 
Wyatt's Christian Altar, .... 

Voyages and iTravels. 

Africa and the American Flag, 

Applet-jns' Southern and Western Gr.i<i.«, 
" Northern and Eastern Guide, 

" Complete U. S. Guide Book, . 
" N.Y. City Map, . 

Bartlett's New IMexico, &c. 2 vols. Illustrated 

Bumet'a N. Western Territory, 

Bryant's What I Saw in CaliS^mia, 

Coggeshall'a Voyages. 2 vol*. 

Dix's Winter in Madeira, -. 

Hue's Travels in Tariary and Thibet. 2 vols, 

Layard's Nineveh. 1 vol. 8vo. 

Notes of a Theological Student. 12mo, 

Oliphant's Journey to Katmundu, . 

Parkyns' Abyasima. 2 vols. . . 

Russia as it Is. By Gurowski, 
" By Count de CueMne, . . 

Squier's Nicaragua. 2 vols. 

Tappan's Step from the New World to the Old, 1 75 

Wanderings and Fortunes <>f Germ. Emigi-ants, 75 

Williams' lethmus of Tehuaniepec. 2 vols. 8vo. 3 50 

Works of Fiction. 

GRACE AGUILAR's "WORKS. 

Tie Days of Bruce. 2 vols. 12rao. . . . 1 50 

Home Scenes and Heart Studies. 12mo. . 75 

The Mother's Recompense. 12mo. . . 75 

Woman's Friendship. 12mo 75 

Women of Israel. 2 vols. ISmo. . . . 1 50 

Basil. A Story of Modem Life. 12mo. . . 75 

Brace's Fawn of the Pale Faces. 12mo, . 75 

Busy Moments of an Idle Woman. . . 75 

Chestnut W^ood. A Tale. 2 vols. . . . 1 75 

Don Qutxotte, Translated. Illustrated, . . 1 25 

Drury (A. H ). Light and Shade, ... 75 

Dupuy (A. E.). The Conspirator, . . . 75 

Elt«n Parry ; or, Trials of the Heart, . . 63 



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MRS. ELLIS WORKS. 

Hearts and Homes ; or. Social Distinction*, 
Prevention Better than Cure, . . 
Women of England 



1 »} 

75 
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1 25 
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75 
76 
75 
75 
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75 

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75 

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75 



Emmanuel Phillibert, By Dumas, ; . 
Farmingdale. By Caroline Thomas, 
Fullerton (Lady G.). Ellen Middleton, 

" " Grantley Manor. 1 vol. 

12mo. 

« " Lady Bird. 1 voL 12mo. 

The Foresters. By Alex. Dumas, . 
Gore (airs.). The Dean's Daughter. 1 vol. 12mo. 
Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield. 12mo. 
Gil Bias. With 500 Engravings. Cloth, gt. 
Harry Muir. A Tale of Scottish Life, . 
Hearts Unveiled ; or, I Knew You Would Like 

Him, 

Heartsease ; or. My Brother's Wife. 2 vols. 
Heir of Redelyfie. 2 vols, cloth, 
Heloise ; or, The Unrevealed Secret. 12rao. 
Hobson. My Uncle and I. 12mo. . . 
Holmes' Tempest and Sunihine. 12mo. . 
Home is Home. A Domestic Story, 
Howitt (Mary). The Heir of West Wayland, 
lo. A Tale of the Ancient Fane. 12mo. 
The Iron Cousin. By Mary Cowden Clarke. 
James (Q. P. R.). Adrian ; or. Clouds of th< 

Mind, 

John ; or, la a Cousin in tho Hand Worth Two 

in the Bush 

JULLA KAVANAGh'Si WORKS. 

Nathalie. A Tale. 12mo. . . 1 00 

Madeline. 12mo. . . . . 75 

Daisy Bums. 12mo. . . ... 1 CO 

Life's Discipline. A Tale of Hungary, . , 63 
Lone Dove (The). A Legend, .... 75 
Linny Lockwood, By Catherine Crowe, . 60 

MISS Mcintosh's works. 

Two Lives; or, To Seem and To Be. 12mo. 78 

Aunt ICitty's Tales. 12mo 75 

Charms and Counter-Charms. 12mo. . . 1 00 

Evenings at Donaldson Manor, ... 75 

The Lofty and the Lowly. 2 vols. . . . 1 50 

Margaret's Home. By Cousin Alice, . . 

Marie Louise ; or, The Opposite Neighbors, . 50 

Maiden Aunt (The). A Story, ... 75 
Manzoni. The Betrothed Lovers. 2 vols. . 1 60 

Margaret Cecil ; or, I Can Because 1 Ought, . 75 

Morton Montague ; or, The Christian's Choice, 75 

Norman Leslie. By G. C. H 75 

Prismatics. Tales and Poems. By Haywarde, 1 25 

Roe (A. S.). James Montjoy. 12mo. . . 75 

" To Love and to Be Loved. 12mo. 74 

" Time and Tide. .2mo. . 75 

Reuben Medlicott ; or, The Coming Man, . 75 

Rose Douglass. By S. R. W 75 

MISS sewell's works. 

Amy Herbert. A Tale. 12mo. ... 75 

Experience of Life. 12mo 75 ' 

Gertrude. A Tale. 12mo 75 , 

Katherine Aahton. 2 vols. 12mo. . . . 1 50 

Laneton Parsonage. A Tale, 3 vols. 12mo. . 2 9S I 

Margaret Percival. 2 vols 1 60 , 

Walter Lorimer, and Other Tales. 12mo. . 75 ' 

A Journal Kept for Children of a Village School, 1 iW 

Sunbeams and Shadows. Cloth, ... 76 

Thorpe's Hive of the Bee Hunter, . . . J 00 

Thaclceray's Works. 6 vols. 12mo. . 6 00 

The Virginia Comedians. 2 vols. 12mo, . 1 60 

Use of Sunshine. By S. M. 12mo. . . . 15 

Wight's Romance of Abelard & HeloiM. lieao, 1» 



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